


Digimon Re: Tamers

by MF217



Series: Citadel of the Heart [2]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Tamers, Original Work
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Characterization Divergence, Bittersweet Seventeen, Blood and Violence, Canon Autistic Character, Dreams and Nightmares, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family Drama, Friendship/Love, Gen, High School, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Retelling, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-22 13:40:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 56,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13765317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MF217/pseuds/MF217
Summary: Re-upload from FF.net. Japan is undergoing a mysterious crisis for years now, so humans and Digimon alike immigrated to America and other countries to seek shelter. A troubled girl, without a Digimon of her own, ends up meeting her partner for the first time in her life. Soon, the girl winds up involved in a group at her school known as the "Digimon Tamers" who immediately want to recruit her. AU





	1. Prologue: Renegade for Life

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This work is a non-profit fan fiction for Digimon. I do not own Digimon nor do I own any of the characters aside from original characters I have created solely for this story. Likewise, the names and or characterization of canon characters may or may not have been altered for the purpose of this fan fiction, but that does not mean I necessarily own them nor does that automatically make them original characters as well. The property of Digimon belongs to Akiyoshi Hongo, which in turn is distributed by Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., Toei Animation, and WiZ. Please support the official works.

Sometimes a story started off with a storm at the dark of night. Sometimes a story started off in a peaceful meadow just outside of residence, or some other peaceful location of tranquility. Perhaps a desert in the middle of nowhere with a lot of formations of plateaus and mountains could also count as well.

"BADABOOM BLAST IT ALL TO GOSHDARN IT HEEECK!"

Had it not been for the sudden, escalating yelling turned full on roar breaking all sense of peace and quiet and causing the entire ground to shake; the earth ruptured and caused one of the plateaus to shatter into debris, and standing right next to the scene was the form of a humanoid with a long, razor sharp tail and what appeared to be raven-like wings protruding from its back, and its right arm transformed into a giant weapon of sorts.

The winged humanoid, panting heavily after having shouted its lungs out, sounded very gruff and deep in voice as it slowly looked around; three eyes focused on its surroundings as nobody was in sight at all. Catching its breath and growling in frustration, a second humanoid, equipped with arms modeled after a dinosaur and a wolf for its left and right arms respectively, and a striking white form and cape, approached the scene to see the disgruntled being before it.

"Still frustrated over what had happened, Beelzebumon?" The second entity spoke, its voice sounding like a female and male voice speaking in synchronization. The entity, seemingly called Beelzebu-

"It's Beelzemon you blasted idiot! I know what my name is and I'm not letting the Japanese dictate how I prefer to be called, and you're not going to influence that decision for me or anyone else in this whole American owned sector! Capiche?!" Beelzemon corrected the entity before it, angered at the presence of this divine figure before it.

"Look, Beelzemon, I get it; this isn't my turf to call orders or anything, but it is still within the Digital World and-"

"Cut the crud, Raiga! You know exactly why everything went to hell back in your sector and you could've easily stopped it! But no! You chose to run and hide over in MY turf because YOU were too scared to face a threat happening over in the Japanese sectors!" Beelzemon shouted at the entity, allegedly named Raiga, as Raiga raised its saurian arm as out from the tip of the jawline emerged a giant blade with markings on it.

"Is that a challenge, Beelzemon?" Raiga asked, as Beelzemon backed down and moved to turn and leave the scene. "… I figured as much." Raiga spoke, as it moved to sheathe the blade only to immediately be taken off guard by a sudden blast of energy headed its way, in which Beelzemon flew in and smashed its clawed, left arm into Raiga's chest to grab something, in which case a keycard type of object was grabbed from the Raiga's now wounded chest.

"Where do you intend on going with that, if I may ask?" Raiga spoke, as it didn't appear hindered by the injury at all. However, as Beelzemon's left fist began to burn with a fiery energy, it probably wasn't wise to judge the situation too soon.

"I know exactly where I'm going and I'm not going to have you folks interfere with seeing my tamer for the first time! She had been ostracized her whole life and you using the same excuse to get what you want is baffling when you won't even let someone more precious get away with it!" Beelzemon spoke up, as its left fist was ready to launch a powerful punch against Raiga.

"FIST! OF! THE BEAST KING!" Beelzemon shouted, as he suddenly punched Raiga with the intense, fiery energy from which exhaled a massive, lion shaped head of an inferno to engulf Raiga entirely with; in the explosion the occurred at close proximity, Raiga collapsed to the ground in defeat all the while moving to aim its wolf-like head to open up to reveal a cannon to take aim.

Beelzemon, however, was nowhere to be found as Raiga's energy was dwindling fast. With Beelzemon nowhere to be found, Raiga simply sheathed the cannon and tried to move to stand… only to completely pass out when the injuries finally took their toll on Raiga after initially being able to shrug them off. However, Raiga seemed to be chuckling as it slipped into unconsciousness.

"I knew he had it in him after all of these years…"

* * *

_"Hello?"_

_A voice could be heard out in the void of another's mind; the mind of a young boy, looking around as he tried to look for where the voice came from. What he heard next was giggling, followed by some playful, barking calls from what was clearly a female voice. As the boy wandered around, he eventually noticed the void was being replaced with a relatively peaceful park at sunset, with a lone bench alone a path facing out towards a large lake._

_At the bench was a girl, approximately of his own age, that took his attention clear as day as his face turned a bright red; he was watching her using a puppet she had on her hand to interact with a raven that was perched next to her. It didn't appear to be fully grown all the while the puppet's head was giving the bird seeds for it to eat, with the girl watching with curiosity and giggling a little bit as the raven fledgling allowed her to pet it with her other hand._

_The boy slowly moved towards the girl with an intent of trying to speak with her, as he had an odd feeling he recognized her; slowly approaching the girl as he took cautious steps to not startle her, the girl slowly looked over towards him with a confused, curious gaze._

" _T-Takato…?" She asked, as the girl remained still in movement as the boy approached her, still taking his time as he moved to sit right next to her. The girl's gaze didn't stray from him at all, as the boy looked straight into her eyes as the boy moved to brush the girl's hair out of the way of her face to have a look at her; his gaze calm and quiet the whole time._

_The raven suddenly flew off and began making a call seemingly out of panic, as the girl's eyes widened a bit as the boy suddenly moved to pin her in place, "T-Takato?!" She tried to ask again, all the while the boy moved to hold the girl's chin up in an affectionate gesture; as the girl kept eye contact in fright against the boy, she could tell something was wrong. The boy now sported a smirk on his face, as he forcefully pushed the girl onto her back as she squirmed to get out of his grasp._

" _Yes… Say my name, I love it when you say my name…" The boy spoke up; his tone sounding a mixture of creepy in monotone, as well as having a distinct sense of malice to his tone. The girl squirmed more as the boy placed his hand on the girl's mouth with a cloth, as the girl was trying to scream out for help._

" _N-N-No! You're not Takato! S-S-Stop… i-i-it…" The girl tried to struggle, all the while the boy moved to lower his head towards her ear, as the girl was beginning to slowly lose her consciousness at an increasing rate._

" _Don't lie to me, Jeri; I am Takato; I am all of Takato in all of my own glory…" The boy spoke, all the while the girl was struggling in his grasp still, but her slipping consciousness was causing her body to become limp and weak; the boy forcefully held her on her back with him over top of her, while the cloth on her mouth was quickly causing the girl to fall unconscious because of how the boy was forcing her into submission. The girl's eyes weakly were remaining open, all the while the boy began to whisper into her ear._

" _That's right, just fall asleep and let me do all the work; I'll take care of you from there…" The boy spoke to her, as the girl's dread she was beginning to feel was beginning to take over; her mind was slipping into unconsciousness, as her body was beginning to fall completely limp. As she was slipping away from this world, a she looked as the boy's expression turned to show shrunken pupils, a wide smirk, as he slowly could be felt moving around the girl in ways she couldn't process due to her slipping away…_

* * *

The girl suddenly had her eyes widen in full consciousness; the boy disappeared from her sight, and the calm setting of the lakeside was replaced by her bedroom. Everything looked normal from what she could tell as she was laying down in her bed with her heart beating out of her chest, as she was gasping for air as she tried to catch her breath; a horrible nightmare it was, and from turning her head to face her a small trinket on her table side, she picked it up and looked at the time; 3:42 AM.

Early in the morning, but as the girl shifted in her bed, listening to the soft sound of rain outside of her window, it appeared she was waking up this early on purpose. The girl's room appeared to be decorated in a lot of posters; some of them for very old, vintage cinema movie posters, as well as a relatively small, aged television set in the girl's bedroom that was turned on and only silently showed static in it due to not having a signal. A VCR player was hooked up to it, as was a Sony PlayStation, but the girl's attention did not focus on any of those.

As she slowly moved to sit herself up and allow herself to breathe for a few moments as she tried to make out what had happened in her mind. Her mind was panicked when she saw an icon pop up on the device; something inside of it in the form of a small, cute looking angel of sorts was asking for food. As Jeri focused her mind on calming down, she calmed herself with feeding the creature with a simple press of a button, and repeating it until the creature was fully fed.

It was very early in the morning as it was to even be awake playing a game like this now; perhaps the girl herself knew that, as she seemed to be slowly rubbing her eyes to help herself stay awake, as right her attention was fixated on the device in her hand. With only a handful of buttons on it on the front, with a small screen for viewing the digital creature inside, the girl giggled a bit as the creature got somewhat startled after a small droplet swirl appeared on the screen. However, just as quickly with the press of a button, the swirl was washed away and the creature perked up with a heart above its head, causing the girl to smile as she kept her gaze fixated onto it.

On the back of the girl's mind, she was trying to boot up the training mode on the game; the creature's name registered as "Kyupimon", and the status screen showed it to be an "In-Training Level". As the training screen booted up once it Kyupimon had enough energy to train after having slept already, Jeri shook the device a little bit as Kyupimon was firing off five shots in the process. Hitting a target with the various shots, two of them were only a single projectile, two were three projectiles, and the last was a double projectile.

With the creature's energy depleted after Jeri focused several minutes on training in a similar fashion, Jeri didn't show any sort of fatigue at all as she was awake so early in the morning. As the creature's training was finished, Jeri's eyes widened with the screen began to flash and with a scrolling text saying "DIGIVOLVE", as Kyupimon's sprite shifted in shape drastically from a more angel looking creature, to a taller, more defined devilish looking creature.

As Jeri moved to check the status on it, she nearly freaked when she heard her bedroom window open by itself; keeping her breath low and quiet as she tried to keep herself calm, she turned back towards the device and saw the creature's new form.

"Impmon, Rookie Level. Is that right, Jeri?"

Jeri's eyes widened as she heard somebody speak, as she turned around to face the middle of her bedroom as her eyes widened as a small, but clearly devilish figure moved to raise a hand and ignite a spark of flame in its hands to show itself in the otherwise dark room. Having bright, green eyes and a smiley face on his chest, while wearing a red scarf and red gloves with a purple body, the creature dissipated the flame in its hand as it held out its hand towards Jeri. Jeri flinched at the sudden movement, but wasn't able to find the energy in herself to scream.

"You may call me Impmon, Jeri; I am your Digimon to command as your partner." Impmon introduced, as Jeri gasped a little bit as she slowly moved towards the device she held in her hand; it transformed in shape as the image of the virtual Impmon had disappeared, and was instead replaced with the image of the Impmon before her now.

"I've been waiting for this day for too long, Jeri; you are my tamer, after all." Impmon said, before he moved to jump onto Jeri's bed and have a careful look at her face in the dark; being much more adjusted to the night, Impmon could see her confused eyes rather easily, as Impmon's eyes, while he was stubborn with it, softened in gaze as he moved to sit on the far end of the bed from Jeri.

"Would you like a glass of water, Impmon…?" Jeri asked, as she gulped a bit from nervousness as well as a dry feeling she felt on her throat. Impmon, raising an eye, gave her a small nod as Jeri moved to get out of bed and stand up, and left the bedroom quietly as she shut the door behind her.

Impmon moved to stand up and look around the room; he could tell his tamer was somewhat troubled, it seemed. Jeri appeared to be no older than 10, maybe 13 years old, or perhaps just looking very young by 16 year old standards; Impmon didn't have enough reference material on humans to make up his mind, but he was able to notice that whichever was her actual age, she appeared too old to have the various plushes and toys in her bedroom.

Littered across the room were various stuffed animals of prehistoric reptiles; a giant, long necked aquatic reptile bigger than Jeri herself, an equally large but not as tall plush of a red tyrannosaurus which gave him déjà vu, and also the odd placement of a plush that gave him even more confusion; it didn't look as neatly made as the others ones across the room, as it looked to had been made by hand, and didn't appear to be finished yet. Impmon, moving off of the bed to have a look at it, carefully picked it up before realizing he walked in view of the door by that point.

"Hey, I'm back but I- O-Oh… You noticed my project, I-I see…?" Jeri asked Impmon nervously as she walked back into her room, closing the door behind her, as she was quick to calmly, and carefully, take the plush out of Impmon's hands. Jeri looked scared that Impmon might've tried to put up a fight for the plush, but he didn't bother trying to prevent her from taking it.

"You made that yourself?" Impmon asked, as Jeri looked at him with a nod, before handing him a glass of what appeared to be fruit juice instead of normal water. Impmon couldn't really complain, however, as he was quick, albeit calm, to begin drinking from the cup as he followed Jeri back to have a seat at the side of her bed, before Jeri moved to tiredly lay down on her bed and let out a small yawn.

"Hey, Jeri?" Impmon spoke up, taking a small sip of his drink again as Jeri looked over at him.

"Y-Yes…?" Jeri asked, as Impmon looked up towards her with a smile.

"Thank you… I didn't want to put too much of a hassle, but…" Impmon was beginning to trail off, but by the time he was about to say something else, he noticed how Jeri was quick to end up falling asleep again. As Impmon stood to finish his glass of juice and move to place it on the table next to her bed, he moved to lift the covers over Jeri's shivering form as he lightly, and carefully, brushed her hair out of her face as Jeri gave a small smile in her sleep.

Impmon hesitated with trying to figure out how to respond, as he looked over towards the plush Jeri had started making sometime before he arrived; he looked at the red, white, and black striped form of it, and wondered why it looked the way it did; he couldn't recognize it as any known Digimon that existed, and yet he couldn't help but feel as if it didn't look out of place to actually be one. Regardless, Impmon moved to slowly sit back down at the side of the bed, moving to pull some of the stuffed animals as makeshift pillows and began to lay down against them.

"I'm so glad I'm finally here after all of this time… I can only hope I wasn't too late in showing up in your life for how long you needed me there, Jeri…"


	2. Chapter 1: Pathetically Vilemon

Early in the morning, Impmon is fast asleep next to the wall in Jeri's room; lying on top of the old television in his tamer's room, Impmon was quietly murmuring in his sleep for who knows how long at this rate.

"… Zzz… Impmon digivolve to… Devidra… no… Impmon, digivolve to… Ogre… no, no… What was it now…?" Impmon, talking in his sleep, didn't realize he is slowly beginning to stir, and thus his words are more thoughtful than he thinks right now. As Impmon's green eyes open, slowly widening as he moves to sit up on top of the television, Impmon scratches his head in confusion, trying to take the waking world in.

"Huh… what  _do_  I digivolve into aside from Beelzemon?" Impmon asks himself as he takes in his surroundings; looking over towards the clock next to Jeri's bed, it read 9:24 AM. Jeri, for that matter, was nowhere to be found. Impmon took a moment to register this fact, but once it hits his mind, his eyes snap open wide as he looks around frantically.

"Holy sugar honey iced tea, where the heck did Jeri wander herself off to without me?!" Impmon asks himself as he moved to jump down to the floor, before quickly moving to open the bedroom door; the immediate room was a hallway with another bedroom door just right next to Jeri's own, having a more secure lock on it. Compared to the colorful surroundings in Jeri's room, though, the hallway looks oddly plain.

Impmon looks rather bothered as he walks through the hallway, before entering the main living room which connects directly into a kitchen; the kitchen contained an oven, a sink, a dishwasher, and a refrigerator. Nothing unusual, but some of the hardware looks as if they haven't been used in years. As Impmon goes to check on the fridge first, he sees a note on it in adult handwriting as he takes it down and looks at it.

" _To Jeri,_

_Money is tight ever since last week at work, so be sure to spend no more than $15 per day out at school. Do not worry about me, I'll just fend for myself; just be sure to be polite and considerate as you do your chores for Ms. Hata next door, alright? I'll be home after work._

_-Be good at home and be nice to people, Tadashi Katou."_

"Prickish move for Jeri's old man I see; he doesn't even address himself as dad, yet alone even appear to give a sign he's even here." Impmon commentates on the note left behind, as something occurs to Impmon as to what was on the note; spend no more than $15. Upon thinking about it, Impmon opens the fridge and finds various spices such as ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise, but in terms of what he could find in terms of food.

It appears there to be only large quantities of boxes for junk food from numerous restaurants and fast food. Impmon, checking them out, noticed the contents of the boxes didn't appear like anything someone of Jeri's age would like to eat, but regardless, the implications he was getting for both Jeri and her father was loud and clear.

"Jeri can't even seem to afford normal groceries… What did I miss after all of these years?" Impmon asks himself, as he notices a small pouch on the table between the kitchen and the living room; as Impmon inspects it, he notices the bright, colorful pink plaid on it as he opens it and very clearly sees $15 within it.

"Greeeat, just great; got to find a way to make sure Jeri gets this today, but how can I do that when the folks outside are walking around in the brightest day and-"

Before Impmon could react the small purse was swiftly taken from his own hand in the blink of an eye; Impmon hurriedly looks around, as he spots an illusion of another Digimon in the room clear as day; a very tall vixen in sheen, yellow fur and a white underbelly, equipped with violet gloves and having soul-piercing green eyes.

"どのくらい前に彼女はこれを後に残しましたか？" The vixen spoke, but Impmon was confused as to what the clearly feminine yet very harsh sounding tone this Digimon spoke; she sounds as angry as her expression already implies.

' _Jeeze maybe she's just speaking Japanese because she doesn't like me here… uh…'_  Impmon thought, before speaking up, "Say again? I can't speak Japanese." Impmon asked the Digimon, as he feels a sudden jolt along his spine as he heard a harsh growl from the vixen.

"ふざけるな。 なぜあなたは私たちの故郷の言葉で話さないのですか？" The vixen's words begin to grow more intense and frustrated as she steps forward; disappearing in each motion she made forward every few seconds, as her delicate, and much more humanoid form towered over Impmon in height alone as she has him against a corner.

"No seriously can you speak English at all?! You're beginning to freak me out!" Impmon asks the vixen before him, as he quickly gets picked up around his scarf as he's lift into the air and lead back towards the front door; the vixen opens it, as she glares straight into Impmon's scared eyes.

"Get out."

"WAIT, HOLD ON NOW, PLEASE! I'm Jeri's partner Digimon! Why else would I be here?!"

"Then where have you been all of these years, pest?! A true partner Digimon would've never allowed their Autism cursed tamer to be allowed to be unguarded in an unfriendly environment like this! What are you playing at with why only now you're here?"

"Me, a pest, you seriously think that? Says the Digimon who barges in without asking!" Impmon yelled towards the Digimon in question, as he was set down by the Digimon as the towering Digimon moved to raise her hand, armed with sharp claws and-

"Renamon?"

A girl's voice broke the tension in the Digimon, called Renamon, away from her focus on Impmon, as she moves to lay her sight on the older girl towards the right at the steps of the porch.

"ルキさん...？なぜあは学なた校にいませんか？"

"Jeri's aide asked for me to get something for her, and unfortunately my digivice went off not too long before I got here. Now why are you picking a fight with Jeri's partner?" The girl asks, as Impmon has a good look at her and notices her rather cold demeanor; it didn't seem to be aiming towards him, but rather towards Renamon considering her gaze fixated solely into the vixen's own eyes.

"My apologies, Ruki; I'll be off, then." Renamon spoke, as she vanished into a ghostly blur as Ruki took Jeri's purse into her hands as she sighs.

"The BS Renamon can get into at times over the pettiest things, I swear…" Ruki spoke, as she looks over at Impmon. "So you're the partner of Jeri I've been hearing rumors about all across the school club. I was expecting an Elecmon oddly enough." Ruki spoke towards Impmon, before she has a look at her digivice and notices the time.

"As much as I'd like to talk, now isn't the time; I have a purse to give back to Jeri before lunch break." Ruki spoke, as she moves to turn and walk off of the porch and head off towards Jeri's school. Impmon simply looks at Ruki completely baffled for better or worse; while Renamon was harsh in her introduction towards him, he had known of her lineage to normally be a lot more bloodthirsty than what he had seen, at least, while they were still younger in form. Ruki's Renamon didn't exactly disappoint, but Impmon is impressed with just how much restraint Renamon shows around Ruki.

"Oi, Ruki is it? Mind I ask what makes you so special as to have a Renamon of all things obey your every whim?" Impmon asks, as Ruki looks back towards him as she sighs.

"Look, just lay low for now until Jeri gets home; I have to hurry lest Jeri gets in trouble again." Ruki tells Impmon, as Impmon scowled as to how Ruki avoids trying to answer him.

"Hey! I may be late to being by Jeri's side, but I could at least deserve some answers as to what the heck I've missed after so many years! Capiche?!" Impmon yelled at Ruki, but Ruki doesn't answer and continues her way off towards Jeri's school. Impmon growled at the fact he was being ignored, but he knew he couldn't easily give chase because of the broad daylight with everyone bound to see him…

… Without a disguise, anyways; Impmon sees a rather large, bulky trench coat hanging off of the inside of the door in the house, as well as a rather large hat; both of these could be used to hide him from plain sight from the humans, but while Impmon could still draw attention for being incredibly small, it's better than not having any disguise at all.

* * *

As Impmon had been walking out in the light of day throughout the neighborhood, Impmon had to walk for at least a mile before he finally came across the school in which Jeri is attending. Standing outside of a window and looking into the classroom inside, Impmon could see Jeri trying to work on schoolwork, but it appeared that she was drawing in the middle of class instead.

"What is she doing…?" Impmon whispers to himself, as he has a close look as to Jeri's drawing; it didn't look like a random sketch off of the top of Jeri's mind, but it seems like she was drawing something with more thought put into it. Impmon was stunned either way that the teacher simply went on with a lecture and seemed to not acknowledge Jeri clearly, but rather quietly, being distracted by her drawing.

As Impmon tries to get a closer look, he could vaguely see Jeri was, attempting anyways, to draw a person in her sketch, but it wasn't clear from this distance as to who it was supposed to be. As Impmon kept trying to keep watch on his tamer, he noticed a few things as time went by; Jeri had gotten most of her work done in relatively little time the moment it was handed to her, and once she was done, she began drawing on clear paper until the next assignment was ready for her.

"I can't help but notice her attention is elsewhere right now…" Impmon murmurs to himself; true, Jeri was drawing as she was doing work, but since she was so close to the windows, she appears to be looking outside every now and then, which Impmon turns to face in the same general direction in which he sees what- or, rather, who Jeri was looking at outside.

Alone in the courtyard of the premises, was a boy approximately the same age as Jeri; looking rather timid as he kicks around a soccer ball by himself, he wears an easy to distinguish, blue shirt and aviator goggles.

"So where's his own Digimon when he's wearing goggles like that?" Impmon raises an eye as he speaks up, as there didn't appear to be a Digimon in sight besides the lone boy. Impmon was intrigued by the circumstances either way; Jeri's attention was caught by the boy, as Impmon looks over towards Jeri and notices a luminescent blush on her face. Jeri is clearly smitten with the boy playing soccer by himself, as Impmon looks over towards a large clock in the courtyard and checks the time.

"10:58 AM. I must've taken a lot longer to get here than I thought." Impmon murmurs to himself, as chuckling can be heard behind him as Impmon turns around and faces the source directly.

"… Vilemon, go figure you would want to ruin the mood right now." Impmon replied to the large mouthed demon Digimon.

"Whatever do you mean, Impmon? I'm just here to enjoy the show." Vilemon answered, as it pushes Impmon out of his disguise clothing and tosses Impmon down into the courtyard where the boy is. The boy, noticing Impmon crash not far from him, jolts a bit in surprise as he moves to quickly run off in a hurry. Impmon quickly gets back up, as Vilemon floats down chuckling all the while.

"What's the matter, Impmon? Couldn't foresee my little teasing?" Vilemon taunts Impmon, as Impmon grits his teeth as he manifests a dark flame in his right hand.

"Oh yeah, foresee this then! BADABOOM!" Impmon yells as he ignites the dark flame into a larger one and tosses it directly into Vilemon, as the demon Digimon is quick to dodge and decides to blow a raspberry to Impmon, only to suddenly feel its own tongue burning as Impmon quietly launched more fireballs towards him as Vilemon begins to freak out from Impmon's enraged onslaught.

"Is that all ya got, vile beast?!" Impmon asks, as Vilemon gets back up after the numerous attacks against it and launches itself towards Impmon.

"Scratch Beat!" Vilemon yells, as Impmon quickly dodges and launches a larger dark flame into its back in an immediate counterattack. "Drat! Will you cut that out already?!" Vilemon yells back towards Impmon, as Vilemon gasps upon seeing Impmon's eyes glow a bright red as a shadowy veil appears around him in the form of a tall, dark humanoid figure with wings; far larger than Vilemon itself ever would be.

"Filthy rat, you shall know the Touch of Evil!" Impmon spoke in a deeper voice as Vilemon hears the school bell ring as Impmon's shadowy form looms over him as Vilemon simply ran off laughing in terror as to Impmon's imposing form, before the shadowy veil around Impmon forcefully drags Vilemon back over to him in which Impmon finds the nearest dumpster in the courtyard and immediately smashes Vilemon into the dumpster and shuts it inside of it.

"Huh? Wha?"

Impmon nearly freaks as he only just now realizes an old, bearded adult stirring right next to the dumpster; the janitor looks around to check on what exactly had just happened before he was rudely woken up, as Impmon was nowhere to be found and as the janitor checked the dumpster's contents, Vilemon was too buried in it for the janitor to notice it.

As Impmon hides back in a tree, Impmon watches as the janitor proceeds to head back to sleep all the while Impmon sighs in relief as to Vilemon having been dealt with now.

"Impmon?" Jeri's voice could be heard directly behind Impmon, as Impmon jumps and moves to face her.

"Jeri? When did you-"

"The bell for lunch went off a few minutes ago, so I came to check on you after I heard you outside." Jeri speaks up, as Impmon groans.

"Did Ruki happen to give you back your purse yet?" Impmon asks, as Jeri blinks.

"What do you mean? I have it right here." Jeri says as she moves to check her pockets, as she is quick to discover she didn't have it on her this whole time, to which she hears someone sigh as Ruki moves over towards Jeri and Impmon while handing Jeri her purse.

"Do you mind if we head into the VIP room to eat? I think it'll be easier for Impmon to fit in there." Ruki asks, as Impmon nervously chuckles, all the while Jeri's eyes widen.

"The VIP room, but isn't that only for Digimon tamers?" Jeri asks, as Ruki gives her a questioning glare as she nods her head towards Impmon, as Jeri nervously laughs as she realizes what Ruki is getting on to.

"O-Oh… Right, I'm a tamer now, so I can officially enter the VIP room now, right?" Jeri asks Ruki, as Ruki nods.

"There's going to be some paperwork you'll need to fill out, so make sure you have your digivice on hand because you and Impmon will be doing some entry-level exams while you're there." Ruki says, as she moves to take her leave as Jeri looks over towards Impmon, then looking around the courtyard again.

' _Odd… I wonder where Takato had run off to.'_  Jeri thinks to herself, as she moves to follow Ruki alongside Impmon, as the boy, named Takato, could be seen moving out from hiding behind a corner after having been listening in on Jeri and Ruki's conversation.

"Jeri's going to be a tamer now? That's a lot to take in." Takato murmurs to himself, as the janitor yawns as he moves to wake up; shades covering his eyes as he looks at Takato to wonder what had happened.

"Care I ask if you happen to know what had happened earlier, kid?" He asks, as Takato shook his head.

"No, why, did something happen?" Takato asked, as the older man sighs as he moves to push the dumpster out of the courtyard.

"Could be mistaken, but I could've sworn I heard a fight going on; guess I might've been wrong. Just do me a favor kid and stay out of trouble, alright?" The janitor asks, as Takato nods and moves to leave for lunch all the while the janitor lifts the whole dumpster and shoves all of the trash inside of it into a compactor, all the while Vilemon could be heard shrieking from within the pile of trash.

"Wait! Don't start the compactor yet! Let me out!" Vilemon begs for mercy pathetically before the janitor, all the while the janitor closes his eyes as he sighs and moves to grab hold of Vilemon and pick him out from the trash, as the janitor's shades are off as strange-looking eyes pierce directly into Vilemon's own.

"Then do tell; what exactly happened while I was snoozing?"


	3. Chapter 2: VIP

Walking through the hallway of the southern side of the school's foundation, Jeri notices something unusual; nobody was raising an eye as to Impmon walking beside her; even with the heavy clothing hiding him from view, nobody spoke up or gave her any weird looks at all.

As Ruki walks up to a door in the south hallways labeled "VIP's only", she knocks on the door as a small mail slot opens up as a person's eyes were visible through them.

"Password?"

"Decode." Ruki answers with, as the mail slot closed as the door could be heard unlocking from the other side, as Ruki is greeted to a tall, handsome young man with bluish hair and a camouflage vest over his torso.

"Come on in." The boy speaks up, as Ruki walks on inside and down the flight of stairs just inside, as the boy eyes Jeri and Impmon curiously as the two of them both follow Ruki inside and down the stairs as well. With nobody else in view, the boy shuts the door and put the locks back into place.

As Jeri walks down the stairs with Ruki, she could hear her stomach growl a little as Jeri bites her lip a bit to try and focus her attention on where she and Impmon are following Ruki to. As Ruki opens the door on the bottom of the stairs, Ruki allows for Jeri and Impmon to walk in first, Ruki taking away Impmon's coat and hat, as Jeri's eyes widen as to what she sees before her.

"Digimon, Digimon everywhere; I can't believe you guys hide this place so well from the teachers." Jeri speaks as she looks on in awe; the giant room looked much more hi-tech in foundation and polish than the school above had; bright, electric lights crawled around the walls and floor like a circuit board, as Jeri could see many Digimon with their tamers in this room, many of which caught her attention very easily.

"Now then, Jeri, we'll just need to get you registered and then-"

"Oooh~! Is that a GeoGreymon I see over there?" Jeri runs off to check on a girl tamer's imposing, tall, and spike covered saurian known as GeoGreymon, before turning her attention towards a wolf-like Digimon with a very dark shade of blue for stripes. "Gururumon! I remember seeing you in Digimon World!" Jeri said towards the Digimon as the Digimon nervously smiles as Jeri with a big, toothy expression, as the tamers for both it and GeoGreymon eye Jeri weirdly.

"Oh! Look over there!" Jeri says as she approaches a tall, dark dressed male whom Ruki freaked when Jeri tried to walk over towards him. "Cyberdramon, and if my digivice doesn't lie to me, it's got enough D-Power to digivolve to Mega already!" Jeri was busy ogling the various tamer's Digimon in this room, as Ruki moves to grab Jeri by force and pull her away from the large, cybernetic dragon Digimon before it bites or lashes out at her with its giant claws, though still managing to roar at her savagely for her sudden intrusion.

"Ruki, care to explain this new girl's condition before I have her kicked out before she has a chance to properly join?!" The boy with control over a restraint on Cyberdramon asks Ruki, before Ruki nervously chuckles a bit.

"S-Sorry, Ryo, it's just Jeri's diagnosed with Autism and while that doesn't excuse her behavior by a longshot-" Ruki said the last part sharply, cutting herself off as she gives everyone a keen glare in a defensive manner, "-Jeri is essentially a small minnow taking a dive in a much larger ocean right now, and I would respect it if all of you guys can learn to help her adjust to her new associates and not immediately scorn her for something she has no true control over." Ruki finishes, as the boy sighs as he shrugs.

"… Ruki, you know I can't simply take Jeri's ogling behavior lying down, right?" The boy asks, as Ruki growls a bit.

"Care to rephrase that if you want anything from me once my birthday arrives, Ryo?" Ruki sternly asks, as the boy, named Ryo, has his eyes widen and his face turn red immediately as he begins to tremble somewhat in place with Ruki's suggestive remark.

"Clever girl, but regardless, after what Jeri nearly just did to have Cyberdramon almost maul her face in, why should I let her into this club even if she has a Digimon? I know plenty of Digimon tamers who attend this school who would rather not attend this club, after all." Ryo tries to reason with Ruki on his own statements, but Ruki frowns as she isn't having any of this.

"Look, Ryo; Jeri is exactly like how I started off a year ago; she's lonely, she doesn't have a lot of friends, and she doesn't have a whole lot of income or proper care from her parental figures; she and I have been best friends for the past year knowing how similar we've both had to grow up for one reason or another. I've told her many times about this club, knowing that she would one day be worthy of attending so that she wouldn't have to be lonely anymore upon entry." Ruki began to explain to Ryo, as Ryo raises an eye.

"Look just because you have a nice bod doesn't mean I'm going to listen to just you for Jeri's entry exam; I'd like to hear Jeri's own words on the matter if you don't mind me asking." Ryo speaks up to Ruki, as Ruki nods and looks beside her to where Jeri is; or, rather, was, as Jeri is yet again ogling another tamer's Digimon in the form of a large, green canine/rabbit hybrid decked out in armor and gun-based weaponry.

"Oooh, Rapidmon I see? By any chance can you also achieve its Armor counterpart at all?" Jeri asks the tamer, to which he nervously tries to back away from Jeri.

"Henry, just calm down already, please? You already deal with your baby sister about this subject as it is, so why is it so different now?" Ruki asks the tamer, named Henry, about Henry's awkward expression and his general nervousness around Jeri.

"Um, Jeri, is it? Can you go check in with Ryo over there, please?" Henry asks Jeri, as Jeri nods cheerfully and walks over to Ryo again, as Ruki walks over to Henry with a confused gaze.

"How did you know her name already?"

"Lucky guess?" Henry answers Ruki, as Ryo kneels down to Jeri's level considering their more noticeable difference in height.

"Jeri, so you've wanted to join this club for over a year now, huh?" Ryo asks Jeri, as Jeri nods.

"Yeah! She's wanted to join for as long as I've wanted to be by her side after so many years!" Impmon says to Ryo, as Jeri nods.

"Yes sir." She answers to him, as Ryo raises an eye.

"Why? Don't you know how dangerous it is to tame a Digimon?" Ryo asks as he gestures over to Cyberdramon, as Jeri nods.

"Yes, I know; I need a Digimon of my own to protect me and my father no matter how much my father insists he's safe otherwise." Jeri tells Ryo, as Ryo took a moment to let that sink in, closing his eyes to think.

"A noble cause, true; but might I ask what caused a demon Digimon such as Impmon to arrive before you for such a role?" Ryo asks, as Jeri looks over towards Impmon, as Impmon gives Ryo a glare.

"Isn't it a stereotype that a Digimon's species determines their alignment? Impmon doesn't look like he truly means any harm to me, especially considering how desperate he sounds to be by my side." Jeri tells Ryo, as Impmon nods.

"Precisely, bub." Impmon says as he acknowledges Jeri's reasoning, as Ryo looks over towards Impmon, then back at Jeri as he sighs and moves to stand up again.

"Alright, I'll look into assigning you a training partner to assist with your early membership into this club." Ryo says, as he walks over towards the counter to grab something, as Jeri's eyes widen.

"Y-You mean…?"

"Yes, Jeri; you'll begin your training as a novice tamer, in which we'll determine with what happens next as to whether or not you'll be here to stay, alright?" Ryo tells her, as he hands her a small, circular badge as Jeri takes it and puts it into her pocket, as Jeri looks around as to where Ruki was sitting to the side at another counter, in which an egg-shaped Digimon was serving food, as Jeri recalls her still growling stomach as she sighs.

"Hungry I take it?" Ryo asks Jeri, to which she nods, "Give Digitamamon a talk to over there with Ruki; both of them will help you out for lunch. Just don't worry about any fees or anything yet; lunch is on me for today, so be sure to enjoy it, alright?" Ryo tells Jeri, as Jeri nods as she and Impmon join Ruki over at the other counter as Jeri and Impmon sit down next to Ruki.

"So glad to see you're one of us now, maybe that'll convince you to finally ditch that skirt for something else." Ruki says to Jeri as she looks over towards her, as Jeri blinks.

"Why?" Jeri asks, to which Impmon looks over towards behind the counter and sees a Meramon in the kitchen as Impmon manifests a tiny flame in his left hand, slowly sneaking it behind the counter.

"Well… Never mind, just forget I brought it up again. Perhaps you need a guide on what's safe to eat here, at least, for your tastes?" Ruki asks Jeri something different, to which Jeri nods.

"Is a chicken sandwich with a side dish of chili too hard to ask for?" Jeri asks, as Ruki looks over towards Digitamamon, the Ultimate Level Digimon giving the duo a nod and looking back over towards Meramon. Nearly gasping out of its shell as Meramon and several other cooks are being heckled by small, spectral flames, Digitamamon summons up a shadow from within its shell as it sucks in the flames and returns back to its body.

"Enough messing around, we have a new member to impress!" Digitamamon yelled at the chefs, as he looked towards Jeri and Impmon.

"My apologies; the order will be on the way, anything for you Impmon?" Digitamamon asks, as Impmon thinks about it for a moment.

"Double cheeseburger and a side order of fries, please." Impmon asks, as Digitamamon nods and heads into the kitchen with the other chefs. Ruki looks over at Impmon with a sly smile.

"My my, you're a troublemaker, aren't you?" Ruki asks, as Impmon chuckles.

"You're kidding me, right Ruki? Trouble is practically my middle name! It's what I do best, after all!" Impmon tells Ruki, as Jeri sighs.

"Digitamamon's going to kill you if he catches you next time, you know that, right?" Jeri asks Impmon, as Impmon looks at Jeri in confusion.

"Come on, don't be like that, Jeri. They're the ones allowing tall dark and vicious over there with Ryo even on these campus grounds at all." Impmon says to Jeri in his defense, noting as to how Cyberdramon was snarling over besides Ryo in the corner, as Ruki sighs.

"Cyberdramon is vicious, true, and it may be true I'm a bit on edge with some of Ryo's decisions, but Ryo's more experienced than any of us ever here has been known to be." Ruki asks, as a large, red dinosaur Digimon walks by and hands Ruki a purple can of soda, "Thanks, Tyrannomon." Ruki compliments the larger Digimon.

"Issues with Renamon again? Or is this boyfriend related?" Tyrannomon asks, as Jeri looks at Ruki confusingly, as Ruki sighs.

"Trouble with Renamon, actually; Ryo's actually pretty calm now, luckily enough." Ruki speaks up, as Jeri's eyes widen, all the while Impmon punches his open palm with his right hand.

"Ah, yes, Renamon; need I tell Jeri what she did earlier before I got here?" Impmon asks, to which Ruki nods. "Renamon basically mistook me for an intruding Digimon today at your house, not realizing I'm your partner." Impmon tells Jeri, as Meramon walks out and hands Jeri her order of food.

"Thank you." Jeri said to Meramon, before looking over towards Impmon, "Don't worry about Renamon too much, she's actually a rather nice Digi-"

"Not as of late she hasn't been." Ruki interrupts and corrects Jeri, causing Jeri's attention to fall back on to her best friend. "Renamon's been acting incredibly hostile around newcomers as of late, which normally isn't too problematic for my grandmother since she appreciates Renamon's company… but… My mom last week brought a new guy home with her after she was out of town, and he's been staying over ever since." Ruki brought up, as Jeri listens; Ryo from a distance listens as well.

"My mom had been coming home from work a lot later than normal because of then, sometimes looking ready to throw a fit, but every time the new guy shows up she's calm again; it's concerning me, she's normally quick to kick out any guy staying over when she's in a bad mood." Ruki says to Jeri.

"So what do you want us to do about it? See if there's a Digimon hiding behind this guy's back?" Impmon speaks up, as Ruki raised an eye.

"Actually, that doesn't sound half bad; only problem I'd say there'd be is that your Virus Attribute makes you prone to attracting unwanted attention from elsewhere. Remember that Vilemon not too long ago?" Ruki asks Impmon, to which Impmon nervously chuckles.

"Oh… uh… you actually saw that fight? Oh he was just a clown of a Digimon, though; Champion Level he may be, but he's not a match for me!" Impmon says as Ruki pinches her brow to calm down, as she looks at Impmon more seriously.

"Impmon this is serious! Renamon already normally attracts Champion Level Digimon to her at night anyways considering she's a strong fighter; a Virus Digimon will send Champion Levels swarming to my house like no tomorrow if you were to try and stand guard there. That's probably exactly why she was so hostile to you this morning for that matter." Ruki tells Impmon, to which Impmon sighs as Jeri is calmly eating her order during the two's conversation.

"Whatever the case may be, Ruki, can you at least try and count on me with protecting your mum's hide from whatever scum of a Digimon lurks behind this man's back?" Impmon asks, to which Rapidmon approaches Impmon after hearing more of the conversation.

"That depends, Impmon; can you handle an opponent with the Digital Hazard?" Rapidmon asks, to which the entire room goes quiet; Cyberdramon's snarling is the only noteworthy noise going on immediately after Rapidmon mentions that.

"The Digital Hazard is a fluke if the user of it has no idea how to control it!" Cyberdramon suddenly shouted as his voice was deep and growling in nature, "You guys are all pathetic, thinking that this "mythical artifact" is still noteworthy of raising an alarm even to this day. Can't you all simply learn to dispose of these Digimon just like any other?!" Cyberdramon asks, to which Henry and Ryo have a look at each other out of concern, as Ruki looks towards the two and realizes what they're thinking.

"Alright, alright, everyone calm down first and I'll be the one to give Jeri her first mission, alright?" Ruki asks for the various tamers and Digimon in the room for her attention on this, as all of them now gaze upon her.

"Listen, we all know the rumors as of late; an unidentified Digimon is lurking around after curfew bearing the Digital Hazard on it, and so far no tamer has been identified as to whether this is just another feral, or perhaps someone's partner. Regardless, I do not see the issue with trying to send Jeri and Impmon out to investigate the issue themselves." Ruki asks, to which GeoGreymon and Gururumon look at each other.

"Impmon a strong Digimon even for a Rookie, Renamon too; what make mere Digital Hazard think it be trouble for one of those two, if not both?" Gururumon asks everyone in the room, to which GeoGreymon nods.

"Yesss, Ryo; if the rumors of the Digital Hazard suspect have only given off Rookie Level readings, why not have Jeri and Impmon give it a go and look into it themselves?" GeoGreymon asks Ryo, to which Cyberdramon looked down at Ryo with a vicious smile.

"Are you honestly going to take this lying down, Ryo?" Cyberdramon asks, to which Ryo shakes his head.

"No… but they're right; Jeri, Impmon, I'm giving you both the assignment to check on the Digital Hazard wielding target we have lurking around the city as of late. I'll be sure to notify your partner as to your mission to he'll be able to accompany you just in case, but just do me a favor and don't panic or anything, alright?" Ryo tells Jeri and Impmon, to which Impmon pumps his fist ready for the challenge, as Jeri, now done eating, looks over towards Ryo and everyone else in the room.

"But I'm confused about something still; who will be aiding me on this mission you guys have been mentioning so far?" Jeri asks, to which Ryo and Henry hear the door being knocked on up top; Henry goes to check and asks for the password as before, and two people can be heard walking down the steps as Henry moves out of the way for the person to walk through; the mere sight of the person made Jeri's face slowly flush red upon sight.

"Jeri, this will be your partner for the beginning exams; his name is-"

"Takato Matsuki; just call me Takato, please."


	4. Chapter 3: Takatomon

Jeri's train of thoughts are numb the moment she allows her eyes to focus on Takato, mere feet away from her, as Takato's decision to move forward to greet her takes her further by surprise. Gulping a bit in nervousness, Jeri tries to hide her blush as Takato holds his hand out to her.

"My name is Takato, what's yours?" Takato asks, rather innocently, as Jeri was pushed by Ruki to have her hand take his; her face flushing entirely red as she nervously shakes his hand.

"M-My name is J-Jeri…" Jeri introduces as best as she can, as Takato smiles warmly at her. Ryo couldn't help but snicker as to Jeri's shyness, but a glare from Ruki kept him too quiet for either Jeri or Takato to hear. Speaking of Takato, he didn't exactly notice Jeri's rather obvious embarrassment.

"Jeri, are you alright?" Takato asks, as Jeri nods, as both of them return their hands to their sides, all the while Impmon looks around Takato rather suspiciously; he had seen the boy before in the courtyard, and he simply fled from the encounter between himself and Vilemon, with no Digimon of his own to be found anywhere.

'So then why is he here if he doesn't even have a Digimon?' Impmon thought to himself, as notices Henry and Rapidmon moving out of the way of the exit as Ryo gestures for Takato to lead Jeri back out.

"Remember, the password for getting back in is 'Decode', alright Jeri?" Ruki tells Jeri, as Jeri nods.

"Alright, I'll be sure to remember." Jeri says to Ruki, as she turns her head to notice Takato already making his leave up the flight of stairs, as Jeri quickly follows behind him while dragging Impmon with her. Before they're both out the door, Rapidmon puts the coat and hat back onto Impmon as he walks out. Once they're out, Henry moves to lock the door again and head back down to the others.

"Do you think we should've told her about Guilmon?" Henry asks, as Ryo and Ruki have a glance at each other.

"Nah; Guilmon's a puppy in mentality; even with his own Digital Hazard, he wouldn't hurt a fly unless you angered Takato first." Ruki says to Henry confidently, as Ryo nods.

"She's right; we've all seen Guilmon's behavior, so I highly doubt he's the mysterious carrier of the Digital Hazard we've been hearing rumors about." Ryo says to Henry, as Henry raises an eye.

"Last I recall, not everyone knows Takato even has a Digimon, so what makes us think these rumors aren't just sightings mistaking Guilmon as a threat to society?" Henry asks, as the lights began to flicker after he closes his mouth, as everyone looks around the room as the lights suddenly turn off entirely.

The sound of static flickering in and out is heard throughout the room; everyone's digivices activate and give off a warning signal, as Rapidmon and Cyberdramon get into a battle ready stance as something appears in the middle of the room in the dark. The lights turn back on, as the intruder reveals itself.

"…"

A lone, floating sphere of sorts appears in the middle of the room; as it is glowing with an intense light of a red color, with a hazardous insignia contained within it, manifests in the room as it gives off a whirring, mechanical heartbeat of sorts as Cyberdramon and Rapidmon suddenly lunge at it. The sphere vanishes, and Cyberdramon and Rapidmon resort to attacking each other blindly as the power comes back on in full. Jumping back from each other, Rapidmon's hands and legs begin to manifest a large, green triangle, as Cyberdramon charges a red, electrical current in his hands.

"Enough!" Ruki says as she, slowly, walks in the way of the two Ultimate Level Digimon's sights, as Henry and Ryo's eyes widen as Rapidmon and Cyberdramon simply glare each other down, before both of them store their own energy back into themselves and calm down upon seeing Ruki's harsh glare towards both of them. "Even if Renamon isn't here, that doesn't mean I'm not going to have to babysit you two even if by all accounts I shouldn't be mandated to!"

Ruki's breathing seems dry; her voice sounds like it's beginning to crack a little, as Ruki pants quietly as she moves back over towards the counter. Taking a drink from her can of soda, Ruki lays her head down on the counter as she groans.

* * *

Takato is casually walking through the hallways back in school, with Jeri staying very close to him, and Impmon dressed up again to hide from the others. Jeri, awkwardly blushing as she tries to remain calm while walking alongside Takato, notices how unusually calm Takato is until she notices a small, minor detail one wouldn't notice right away.

"Takato? Why is your hand twitching?" Jeri asks, innocently, as Takato looks back at her; both of his hands and lower arms were twitching a bit, but at a regular glance it would look like they were barely moving at all.

"W-What do you mean, J-Jeri?" Takato asks; a slight, luminescent blush appearing on his face in the process. Jeri, taking notice of this, quickly looks away as to not face Takato directly; Takato, doing the same, nervously chuckles as to the situation.

"Um, could we perhaps get back to class?" Takato asks, as Jeri nods.

"I guess. I've got some studying I need to do, so I'll see you after school?" Jeri asks Takato, to which Takato flinches in place, looking back at her as to not be rude.

"A-Are y-you a-asking m-m-me o-out?" Takato asks, to which Jeri blinks; some students nearby have their attention now focused on the two teenagers before them.

' _Oh dear, what do I tell him?'_  Jeri thinks to herself, as she waits to try and see what Takato will say next. Before she has a chance to speak, the first bell indicating class would begin in a few minutes goes off, taking Jeri and Takato by surprise.

"I'll meet you by the entrance after school, right now I have to hurry to class! See you later, Jeri." Takato spoke rather quickly compared to his normal, mellower tone of speaking. Jeri, nodding, moves to wave goodbye for the time being as she hurries up to get to her own class as well.

Impmon, knowing he's not going to be allowed into Jeri's class no matter what, decides to head off in a different direction, as he quickly looks around for a specific room.

"Bathroom! Where's the bathroom?!" Impmon yelps as he scurries across the floor, looking like the tiniest person in the hallways as Impmon hastily sees a men's room sign up ahead, and immediately takes a sharp turn into the restroom and quickly enters a stall and locks it shut.

"Phew... talk about a close call there…" Impmon says, as Impmon soon hears someone else enter the restroom. Normally, not a big ordeal, except the footsteps sounded heavier than the other students; even heavier when compared to the few adults Impmon could readily compare the footsteps to.

"W-Why are we in here?! Why'd you bring me here, Mr. Janitor guy?!" Vilemon's voice can be heard, as Impmon's eyes widen as he moves to peek out from within his stall to check out what was going on.

The janitor appears before his sights immediately; a greasy, overweight old man, sunglasses covering his eyes, and every time Impmon could see the man open his mouth he can see very sharp, almost metallic in appearance, rusted teeth, with a bizarre, glowing one standing out before the others; a runic blue when compared to the rusted brown on the others.

"Listen here, Evilmon-"

"Vilemon."

"Whatever, you sick- nope, not saying that word around the kids here."

"Teens you mean?" Vilemon tries to correct the janitor again, only to be thrown against the wall with a loud, cracking sound being heard upon impact with the tiled wall.

"I say, well I SAY, correct me again and I'm tearing the smug grin off of your stupid face! GOT IT?!"

"Look, Big G, is it? You've gotta believe me when I say it's just any other Virus Digimon outbreak! You can't blame us for that! We're just going about our business as Virus Digimon! We're not murderous outright!" Vilemon begs pathetically, as the janitor stomps forward with the entire room shaking with each step he takes.

"BOI! Listen to me and listen well before you open that yap of yours again!" The janitor yells as his giant hand forcefully keeps Vilemon's mouth shut, as the janitor looks around as his sunglasses are still on.

"Impmon." The janitor asks, towards the stall where Impmon is, but Impmon stays quiet out of fright.

"… Beelzebumon."

"IT'S BEELZEMON YA JERK!" Impmon says as he opens the stall, the toilet flushing behind him as Impmon looks on to the janitor with a stern look. Only after a few seconds did his newfound confidence turn to regretting his decision to make himself known. Before he could run, however, the janitor grabs him too quickly for him to escape.

"Ya know if Raiga was dun going to let you slip through here through a bluff, ya honestly could've just asked to come here." The janitor asks, as Impmon and Vilemon both give each other glares as the man holds them both in place.

"… I see what's going on here; two Virus Digimon getting into a fight because of the other intruder on the premises as of late, which to be fair, is at least expected from a tamer like yours, Impmon." The janitor says, as Impmon glares at him.

"What about Jeri now?!" Impmon raises his voice, but the janitor secures his grip on Impmon and slams him face first into the wall.

"No seriously both of you! Shut up and listen closely!" The janitor says to both Virus Digimon as Vilemon and Impmon could practically see through the wall they were both being held against; Vilemon growls with what he sees, as Impmon raises an eye in confusion.

"So you'll be there tomorrow night as always?" A women's voice speaks over someone's phone.

"Positive, Ms. Makino. I wouldn't worry so badly over your joyful beast that is me, right?"

"Oh, thank you Eire, you're the best! I'll try my best to make sure Ruki comes home tonight and-"

"What does that man think he is flirting with some cougar?" Vilemon asks, as Impmon glares.

"So this is the prick that causes Renamon to lash out at me; his words make me sick already." Impmon says.

"Baby why is it you want the kid to interrupt a wonderful night like tonight? I thought you said you wanted me over for more adult matters, am I right?"

"Yes- well, yes, very true, but-"

"So there's nothing to worry about; just arrange for your kid to be out of the house, give her something for a movie perhaps with her friends, and we'll have the whole house to ourselves, some drinks, and a nice, warm, comfortable-"

"Okay I think you two get the picture now; that's the idiot who is apparently causing mischief among some of the locals. Grade A New Yorker looking to get into a woman's pants and nothing more, I'd say." The janitor speaks up after moving Vilemon and Impmon away from the wall and setting them down.

"So what does that have to do with us?" Vilemon asks, as Impmon looks at Vilemon with a grin.

"Odd you say that when you consider the rampaging, violent Renamon we have going own around the neighborhood at night and dawn, isn't it?" Impmon says to Vilemon, as Vilemon gasps.

"We're sitting ducks! We need to run and hide before she gets us!" Vilemon yelps out, all the while the janitor moves to kick him right out the door very literally as he growls a bit in frustration.

"YOU HAD ONE CHANCE, VILEMON; ONE. CHANCE." The janitor yells, as Impmon stares in confusion, before developing a bit of a grin of his own; after a moment, he quickly realizes that the man in the other room is the new boyfriend for Ruki's mother he heard about; that itself was unusual, though, since he didn't even see a trace of a digivice on the man at all. In fact, now that he realizes it, neither does the janitor from what he can see.

"HEY! Big guy! Mind I ask why are you getting yourself involved in all of this? You don't even have a Digimon yet alone-" Impmon's words were simply bouncing off of the janitor as he moves to leave, as Impmon lets sink in something the janitor said twice already about Impmon's own past.

"Hold on; Beelzebumon, Raiga, as in, myself and that Royal Knight from a day ago?!" Impmon asks himself, thankful that nobody else is around to hear him.

"I've got to think fast; the local enforcers are on to me already, and I'm not letting them take me away from Jeri by any means!" Impmon says as he moves to grab his coat and giant hat, before promptly leaving the room and noticing the school bell ringing again; Impmon looks at the clock and notices something strange.

"Odd… 4:00 PM already? We haven't even been here a full hour yet!" Impmon says as he quickly finds himself being summoned away along with his coat and hat, Impmon freaking out as to what was going on before he notices himself materializing right next to Jeri; Jeri, having used a command on her digivice to summon Impmon to her side, looks at him before patting his head reassuringly.

"Don't get lost like that again, alright?" Jeri tells Impmon, as Impmon sighs and nods.

"I didn't try to, but regardless, where's goggle boy?" Impmon asks, as he notices Takato at the entrance with Jeri looking over towards him with a bright, luminescent blush on her face; trying to hide it as she approaches Takato slowly, Takato can hear her footsteps drawing close. Impmon realizes something now from his prior remark; Takato wasn't even wearing his goggles he had earlier.

"Oh, h-hey Jeri, I didn't know you're still here." Takato speaks to Jeri, sounding nervous in tone a tad bit, as Jeri walks up to him; trying her best to hide her blush. The sunset causing the light to appear hazy on everything only made things easier, especially since Takato also begins to blush at the sight of Jeri.

"So, about what the others are wanting me to do to help you, Jeri. I'm not sure if I'm ready yet, in all honesty." Takato says to Jeri, as Jeri blinks.

"What do you mean, Takato?" Jeri asks, to which Takato sighs as he pulls out his own digivice and materializes besides him a rather large, theropod Digimon wearing metallic armor and reinforcements, to which Jeri took her digivice to scan it.

"WarGrowlmon, Ultimate Level. I still don't see what makes you think I'm not ready or-"

"Drop the pretenses, Jeri; look at Impmon and look at WarGrowlmon, and tell me something that both of them have different from each other!" Takato's voice, more harsh now, catches Jeri off guard as Jeri trembles a bit in place as she tries to think.

"Let's see, um… they're both Virus Attribute, they're both… um… We are talking similarities here, right?"

"No, Jeri; I'm talking differences. True, they're both Virus Digimon, but you don't understand something about WarGrowlmon nor do you understand something that very few tamers at this school even remotely understand about him or myself for that matter." Takato tells Jeri, as his hands are shaking right now as he looks ready to cry.

"T-Takato?" Jeri asks in a quiet, subdued tone, as she did not expect Takato to suddenly grab hold of her shoulders as Takato's eyes pierce directly into her own.

"Guilmon, Growlmon, WarGrowlmon; it doesn't matter which form my friend is in; he has the Digital Hazard in him by an unfortunate chain of luck, and it's no longer a card or video game anymore with that in mind; my Digimon, my friend, can easily kill you in the blink of an eye." Takato tells Jeri as he seems out of breath, as Jeri's eyes widen as Takato's expression saddens more.

"… A-And, it's my own entire fault as to why he even exists; I'm the one who created him from scratch." Takato admits to Jeri openly, as Jeri blinks as she doesn't understand why this is such a big deal.

"Takato, I don't understand; why are you bringing this up? Nobody seems to hate you for any of this." Jeri tells Takato, based off of what she heard from the others earlier that day.

"Then you're probably wondering why Terriermon and Monodramon were both digivolved into Ultimate, correct?" Takato asks Jeri, to which Jeri tilts her head, "They were both preparing to execute WarGrowlmon in case I had one more screw up as a tamer. Ruki has been going out of her way to vouch for me claiming I'm innocent and so is Guilmon, but Cyberdramon has been slowly trying to convince everyone else that I'm to blame for the Virus Digimon outbreak as of late." Takato says, as he pulls out a photograph from his pocket.

"And I'd like you to see for yourself if you agree with them or not." Takato asks, to which Jeri looks at the photograph and sees it to be security footage, from right outside of Ruki's house from what she could recognize. Takato and WarGrowlmon, both appeared right outside of Ruki's household in frame, but both of them appeared to be focused on something.

There was an unseen combatant just outside of frame.

"I want to ask you before you accept my help with the mission; are you sure you want to go through with this, knowing you have only your own decision as to why you could be put in severe danger?" Takato asks, to which Jeri looks at the photograph, before facing Takato in the eye and nodding.

"I'll still do it; you're being blamed for something you didn't do." Jeri asks, as Takato moves to get something from his backpack and move to take his goggles out, and then putting them onto Jeri's forehead as Jeri blushes immensely as to what Takato is implying.

"You know what you have to do next, Jeri; you have to get Impmon to digivolve to Champion before we even remotely start this mission, otherwise the chances of you getting hurt, if not killed, will be at their peak."


	5. Chapter 4: The Touch of Evil

As Ryo and Henry both walk out of the school, both of them are talking to each other about what to expect next after what Cyberdramon and Rapidmon both nearly did to each other respectively.

"So I take it you'll want me to have Ruki stay over at my place?" Henry asks Ryo, to which Ryo shrugs.

"That's up to her; I know she doesn't want to deal with her mother right now, but all I do know is that I don't think Ruki will be willing to-"

"Ryo?" Ruki's voice is heard from behind the two boys just at the entrance to the school's premises. Ruki, walking up to Ryo, has the latter's full attention as he looks at her directly.

"Ruki? What's up?" Ryo asks, to which Ruki looks at him, then at Henry, and then back at Ryo again, before letting out a sigh.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to stay over at your place for tonight, Ryo." Ruki says to Ryo, as Ryo blinks in shock as to Ruki's words.

"Are you sure? I mean, I knew already you would want to stay somewhere else to feel safer, but… you know how Cyberdramon is and-"

"It's for the best; Henry isn't bad with keeping the peace, but I can't handle myself well around a little kid as of late." Ruki says to Ryo, as Henry nods.

"Right… Shaochung is problematic even considering Jeri's own hyper state of mind, but I know why Ruki doesn't want to be around her either way…" Henry says; his hands clenching into fists as he tries to keep himself composed, as Ryo looks at Ruki with concern.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay with Takato instead of one of us? Or maybe Jeri perhaps?" Ryo asks Ruki just to be safe, to which Ruki shakes her head.

"I'd rather not; Takato and Jeri live too close to my own home, meaning Renamon- no, Taomon, will know I'm nearby and thus somebody could get hurt very easily. I'd rather stay the night over with you, Ryo, if that's alright." Ruki reaffirms the two boys about her decision, as Ryo sighs.

"A-Alright, I'll be sure to keep true to my word as always; no looking or touching, is that still correct?" Ryo asks, to which Ruki nods.

"Positive; so are we going to head off?" Ruki asks, to which Ryo nods and offers Ruki his hand for her to take, as Ruki hesitates for a moment, before grabbing his hand and walking off of the school premises with him towards Ryo's home. As the couple walk off, Henry hears his digivice vibrate as he takes it out of his pocket and checks it; his digivice could act like a cellphone due to how he customized it to work, and the caller ID says someone named "Lee Jiang-yu".

"Not dignifying him tonight or any time soon." Henry says as he hangs up on the incoming call before it could even go to his inbox, as Henry puts his digivice back in his pocket as Rapidmon walks out of the school to look at Henry.

"It's about time we find somewhere to sleep as always; I'm beginning to run low on D-Power, so where are we crashing for tonight?" Rapidmon asks, as Henry looks at Rapidmon and then looks back at the school.

"VIP lounge as we've been doing the past two weeks." Henry says as he walks back towards the school, as Rapidmon raises an eye.

"Can't we just head home for once? Why do you-" Rapidmon tries to say, but Henry shoots a glare his way as Rapidmon keeps quiet in an instant. "Can't argue with the reasoning you want to stay here, but what about Big G, will he mind?" Rapidmon asks, as Henry looks on towards the school.

"Give Martin plenty of space, stay out of his way, and we'll have nothing to worry about, as it always is, anyways." Henry answers Rapidmon, as Rapidmon sighs as he stretches his arms outwards towards the sky, before resting them by his sides again as he follows Henry back inside.

"Roger that, Henry." Rapidmon says, as Henry heads back inside with Rapidmon following him in as well.

* * *

Later that evening, Ruki is lying down in Ryo's bed as Ryo is resting on the floor beside her.

"I feel guilty that you wouldn't take no for an answer regarding the bed; this is your house, after all." Ruki says, quietly, as she looks over from her side to try and face Ryo. Ryo, though, seems to be lost in thought about something, as Ruki sighs and moves to lie down while facing the ceiling.

"You're best friends with Jeri, right?" Ryo asks Ruki, as Ruki leans over on her side to face him.

"Yes; why, you didn't think I could be friends with her?" Ruki asks, to which Ryo sighs.

"More like I didn't expect you to be friends with a more traditionally feminine girl considering your stance on the way girls behave and all as of late." Ryo answers to Ruki, as Ruki nervously faces towards the clock in Ryo's bedroom; 6:54 PM, as the sun was almost fully set; the blinds in the room letting in an orange, hazy light as Ruki moves to, very lightly, move a hand across her chest just above her breasts, wincing a little at the touch, which Ryo notices.

"Are you alright, Ruki?" Ryo asks as he moves to sit up, as Ruki's gaze looks unsure, but she chooses to remain quiet. "Would you like me to get you something to drink?" Ryo offers, to which Ruki takes a moment to think about what he had asked her.

"Just a glass of water, please; I don't want to feel like a pest towards your parents if I were to ask for soda right now…" Ruki says to Ryo, to which Ryo nods and moves to walk out of the room, leaving Ruki alone as Ruki moves to lay her head down; she looks over towards the clock again; 6:58 PM.

"In 2 minutes she'll be out on the hunt again; driven mad by interference in my life, blinded by fury all the while…" Ruki says, as she pulls out something from her pocket; a digivice, but inside of it appears a sprite of Cyberdramon rather than Renamon.

"I don't even know why Ryo wants me to hold onto this; he'll need this more than me, and I can't even control Cyberdramon myself…" Ruki murmurs to herself, as she closes her eyes and tries to rest; a few small, delicate tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"Renamon… Please be alright… I'm not mad at you…"

* * *

" _Come back…"_

_Ruki's eyes were glazed over with a solemn, upset gaze as she walked through an unknown place in the middle of the city; various people were around her, but none of their faces could be made out; not even their clothing appeared to have any detail other than a shadowy veil covering everyone she sees._

_As Ruki looked around, she could see the numerous amount of people begin to disappear as she walked through the crowd; eventually finding a quiet, isolated place on the other side of town, Ruki calms down as she pulls out her digivice from her pocket; before her manifested the humanoid, towering, and heavily robed Taomon before her; a more older looking rendition of Renamon when disregarding her clothing._

" _Run."_

_A voice; incredibly deep, somewhat metallic with an organic mixture in it, spoke out towards Ruki, as in front of Ruki appears the shadowy, smirking form of Ryo with obscured eyes, and directly behind him a towering, six armed colossus with a glowing dragon-like aura on its back and twin cannons emerging from it. Its lower four arms, skinny and lanky in appearance with razor sharp claws, did little to hide the outright bestial head with giant fangs, an armored face, and glowing, piercing eyes._

" _Ruki, why aren't you running away?!" Taomon spoke up, as Ruki looks over towards Ryo and his Digimon with fright._

" _I-I don't know." Ruki said to herself, as Ryo and his Digimon vanished from clear view, as Taomon moved to circle around Ruki, like a predator circling its prey._

" _Liar." Taomon said to Ruki, but Ruki's eyes widened as she looked over at Taomon._

" _E-Excuse me?" Ruki asks, before suddenly Taomon vanished from view; in her place, a large, fiendish hand suddenly appears and backhands Ruki onto the ground, before moving to grab her by the neck. Ruki gasped as to the tight hold the hand had on her, but Ruki cannot tell what the hand is coming from; as she tried to focus on it, she could clearly see a bestial, but humanoid Digimon, but every time she tried to clear her vision…_

…  _The Digimon always showed itself to be Taomon._

" _Why didn't you come back?" Taomon's voice, harsher than she ever sounded normally, spoke to Ruki, as she lets go of Ruki and slashes with her with sharp claws down from the base of her neck down towards her belly; Ruki lets out a scream, as she falls to the ground with her shirt shredded apart; Ruki focusing too much on the bleeding wounds to even remotely bother with her torn shirt._

_As Ruki moved to try and cover her wounds with torn fragments of her shirt to try and stop the bleeding, Taomon's foot could be felt striking Ruki in her back; knocking her over onto the ground face first, as Ruki tries to get up. Feeling very weak as a sudden chill hits her, she could feel her bleeding claw wounds surge through her body with the pain she felt as her body was freezing from the cold; the wounds, becoming infected as the pain hits Ruki hard, cause Ruki to collapse onto the ground, facing up._

" _Now, now, my dear; be a lovely beauty for me, as I'll be your beast." A voice, masculine in sound, spoke, as Ruki weakly looks up with blurred vision as she saw an icy blue, humanoid devil with torn wings, but that wasn't what disturbed her; the face of this humanoid appeared to be similar to her own mother's, but having the snout and eyes of Taomon._

" _Come back to us, sweetie. Come back…"_

* * *

Ruki's eyes snap open as she wakes up; heavily gasping and then beginning to pant as she tries to catch her breath. She wasn't too loud with her gasp when she woke up. Her eyes took a while to focus on what was around her; Ryo was lying on the floor, facing away from Ruki; the clock in the room read 11:04 PM, as Ruki moves to check her pocket and see if she still has Ryo's digivice; Cyberdramon's expression in sprite form appeared angry as usual, but otherwise he seems normal compared to the oddly motionless Ryo.

"Ruki?" Ryo asks; his voice and tone sounds like he has been awake since over four hours ago, and on the counter where the clock was appearing the glass of water Ryo went out to get before Ruki fell asleep. Right next to it, though, appears an unopened bottle of soda that wasn't there before.

"Ruki?" Ryo asks again, as Ruki, as her focus clears up as her breathing calms down, moves to sit up and stretch so she could look over at Ryo.

"Ryo? Have you been awake this whole time?" Ruki asks, to which Ryo turns over and looks at Ruki; nodding to confirm her suspicion, as Ryo moves to sit up and look at Ruki directly.

"Yes, I have; I noticed you fell asleep rather quickly, which normally I haven't seen you do unless-"

"-I end up dreaming about Renamon in some way or form again." Ruki finishes for Ryo, as Ryo sighs.

"We seriously need to find a way to get her to snap out of whatever is causing her to run rogue on us…" Ryo says to himself, as Cyberdramon's chuckling could be heard from Ryo's digivice.

"More like we need to kick her in the head to get her back in working condition, yep; just a good blow to the noggin and Renamon's back in control of herself." Cyberdramon says, as Ruki groans at his remarks.

"I really wish I could punch the guy who stole my digivice for that matter; literally took it from me in my sleep is what the numbskull did." Ruki says, to which Ryo raises an eye.

"Last I recall, wasn't that was the last time you had stayed home and slept there instead of relying on either myself or the VIP lounge for somewhere to sleep, correct?" Ryo asks, to which Ruki nods.

"Exactly; I especially didn't want to be there because of my mother's boyfriend; just the way he talks irritates me in all of the wrong ways possible…" Ruki says as she shudders trying to imagine how the man's voice sounds, but quickly trying to think of something else.

"We should head out anyways; just to see if Taomon hasn't hurt anybody yet." Ruki says, moving to get off of Ryo's bed as Ryo moves to stand from the floor. Ruki moves to give Ryo his digivice back, but Ryo simply shakes his head no to her and gestures for her to keep it by her side. Ruki, at first, looks at Ryo with concern, but Ryo gives her a reassuring nod as Ruki moves to put Ryo's digivice back into her pocket. Very quietly and quickly, Ruki leans up to briefly peck Ryo on the cheek, giving him a warm smile before moving to walk out of the bedroom door; Ryo following behind her as she does.

* * *

Once they are outside, Ruki uses Ryo's digivice and causes Cyberdramon to materialize from it; appearing large and massive as Cyberdramon's wings stretch outwards, Ryo jumps onto Cyberdramon's back, as does Ruki, as Cyberdramon lets out a howling roar before running forward in a sprint and then taking off into the air; powerful, crimson wings giving him flight as he flies off towards wherever Taomon may be.

"Taomon shouldn't be too far away from the middle of town; knowing Jeri and Takato, though, I can imagine they both went to the outskirts to train Impmon to prepare for the mission up ahead." Ryo says, as Ruki nods.

"Smart move for both of them in that case; they wouldn't dare bother with Taomon unless-"

A loud, crashing sound of glass and concrete being torn through and shattering could be heard in an explosive force, as looking down from Cyberdramon's back appears to be none other than WarGrowlmon knocked over from a strong attack through the middle of a building. Cyberdramon moves to scout the immediate perimeter, as down on the ground appears to be none other than Taomon moving to approach WarGrowlmon. Impmon, clear as day to Ryo, Ruki, and Cyberdramon, jumps in front of Taomon as giant spheres of fire and ice form in his hands as they twirl around.

"I may only be Rookie, but I'm at least aware how to fight! So with that, I SUMMON THEE!" Impmon shouts, as he shapes the ice and fire energies into twin, giant spears, as he throws them with an immense, magical force forward to strike Taomon, as the mixture of ice and fire cause a giant inferno of freezing flames to break out from the collision with Taomon. As smoke fills the air, a loud, crashing thud hits the ground, as Ryo and Ruki jump off of Cyberdramon as Cyberdramon growls at Taomon directly in front of him, as Impmon looks on confusingly.

"I didn't literally mean to summon you! What are you guys doing here at this hour?!" Impmon asks, to which Ruki looks over her shoulder towards Impmon.

"Us?! What are you doing here when you should be training?!"

"I am training! I can't exactly find feral Digimon and beat them up as easy as that, ya know!" Impmon yells back at Ruki, "Besides, you should be thanking us for softening Taomon up for ya!" Impmon yells back, as Ruki looks around and sees that Takato and Jeri are nowhere to be found.

"So then tell me genius, where's both of your tamer's?" Ruki asks, as Impmon shrugs.

"To be fair, Rukimon, you could honestly blame me for this entire stunt." WarGrowlmon speaks as he finally manages to get back onto his feet to stand and fight. "Cyberdramon! Duck and cover!" WarGrowlmon says as directly in front of him, a bright, violet sphere of electrical and radioactive energy manifests in-between his arms; charged directly by the Digital Hazard on his chest.

Cyberdramon, grappling Taomon as he thinks Taomon is too weak to put up much resistance now, is taken completely off guard when Taomon throws Cyberdramon over her shoulder and kicks him directly into the sphere of energy WarGrowlmon was charging; the energy sphere exploding upon premature contact with the wrong target, WarGrowlmon and Cyberdramon are sent toppling over as Cyberdramon sniffs the air, and sees something the others can't see.

"Takato! Jeri! GET OUT HERE!" Cyberdramon yells towards a large dumpster, where Takato and Jeri are both hiding behind for cover, as Taomon suddenly turns her attention towards the trembling Takato and Jeri as she jumps and leaps over towards them both; her gaze frenzied as Jeri and Takato embrace each other in a protective stance as Jeri screams loudly.

"IMPMON!" Jeri yells, as her digivice suddenly surges with an immense power as it glows beyond recognition as an intense, bright aura encases Impmon as he leaps up into the air to head after Taomon directly.

"Impmon, Digivolve To…!" Impmon yells as the sphere of light encircles him, before emerging from the egg-like sphere manifests and materializes a tall, very long armed humanoid with razor sharp claws, a skinny posture with equally tall feet, torn up wings, and a horned, humanoid head.

"Devimon!" The newly digivolved Devimon calls towards Taomon, only to be greeted by a swift kick to his head by Taomon, before Devimon simply vanishes like smoke into the air, as Taomon's eyes widen as she tries to detect Devimon's presence.

"You heinous vixen; you shall know the Touch of Evil!" Devimon yells as from Taomon's own shadow erupts Devimon's hand as it impales directly behind Taomon's back and electrocutes her whole body and as Devimon's hand withdraws and takes Taomon's DigiCore into his own hand. However, Taomon's body did not shatter, but instead fell limp and dormant as Ryo and Ruki look towards Devimon with concern, as Devimon kneels down to give Ruki the DigiCore.

"I believe, ma'am, that this belongs to you. Our job isn't done yet, however." Devimon says, as he looks upon Taomon's lifeless body.

"The only way I managed to get the grab on her was because WarGrowlmon and Cyberdramon already softened her up as I mentioned; even then, I had to non-lethally score the knockout to get it so she wouldn't perish; within 72 hours, we'll have to put the DigiCore back in before she'll die otherwise; that's all I can do with this kind of power of mine, however…" Devimon says as he looks over towards a car driving away from the scene; an oddly luxurious sports car of a shining silver paint job. WarGrowlmon, moving to stand himself and the wounded Cyberdramon up, speaks up about what Devimon points to with the fancy car driving away.

"What Devimon is referring to, is that Takato and Jeri overheard a conversation about your stolen Digivice, so we tried to ambush Taomon with brute force to try and obtain any information possible for our advantage with getting the digivice back. However, I fear that the situation is far worse than we could imagine. Takato, do you have the video you took?" WarGrowlmon explains before asking Takato, as Takato uses his digivice to show the approaching Ruki and Ryo some video footage.

Appearing directly in frame appeared to be that abnormal, red and black sphere again, as its presence caused the video's image to flicker constantly, but while nobody watching the footage could hear a voice speaking, they most definitely knew someone or something was speaking to them.

"W͡h́͝o͏̨ ͢͟a̕͢r̨͠e̢͘ ̡y̕ơ͟͏ų͢?̴́͞"


	6. Chapter 5: Big G

WarGrowlmon and Devimon are silent with what the recording shown to them. Takato and Ryo are both giving each other a glance as to what to do next, before the two turn over towards Ruki holding Taomon's DigiCore. Ruki, having been silent for a while, slowly and quietly, took a deep breath as she closes her eyes; the DigiCore in firm grip in her hands.

Suddenly, though, her eyes open as her iris and pupils glow a striking cyan with various 1s and 0s appearing within her eyes, as the DigiCore in her hands does the same. Jeri looks at Ruki with concern, as Ryo quietly gestures for her and Takato to keep their distance. Ryo tries to approach Ruki first to question what she is doing.

"Taomon?" Ryo asks Ruki, as Ruki's body remains completely motionless as the DigiCore continues to glow, as does Ruki's eyes. Ruki, though, slowly turns to face Ryo as her eyes pierce directly into his own.

"Ryo? What is happening here?" Taomon's voice can be heard directly alongside Ruki's, as Ryo is surprised with what he's hearing, but nevertheless keeps calm as he tries to figure out how to respond.

"Your DigiCore and Ruki's soul are emanating with a strong power right now; a power that allows you two to have what is called the "Soul Link", in which two individuals, much like yourself, are in such a high degree of synchronization that you both act as a singular unit." Ryo tells Ruki, as Ruki takes a moment to let everything sink in.

"How did you find this out?"

* * *

" _NO!"_

_Henry's voice was loud and clear; he stood defiantly towards an older man, looking much like an older version of himself, as Henry was standing right in front of a large, canine Digimon with rabbit ears and gun covered hands._

" _But Jianliang, he's a thr-"_

" _First of all, DON'T YOU DARE, call me that name anymore, ever!" Henry shouted to the older man, as behind the older man appeared an older woman of a similar age and a much younger daughter looking on in horror as to Henry's outburst._

" _I am sick; I am so, FUCKING sick, of your treatment of Gargomon and virtually every other Digimon that comes across our path. He's a threat, I get that, he's literally armed with guns, I understand that." Henry pointed out to the man._

" _You don't understand, Jian-" The old man was simply shot a glare from Henry; Henry looked about ready to walk off with Gargomon looked confused as to whether or not to follow Henry. "Look… I understand you're upset with my reaction towards Digimon... I just don't want you to throw your life at home away because of my decision to be defensive for my family." The man explained, as Henry looked back with a scowl._

" _I am done with your decisions; you needlessly put down Digimon because of them merely existing, merely giving me false reassurance they're just reborn in the Digital World. Tell me, then; why has it Gorillamon was never heard from again when you first told me that?" Henry asked the man, as the man's face gave way to guilt._

" _He's scared of the fact he was returned to the Digital World so suddenly…"_

" _HE'S NOT SCARED; HE'S DEAD! I looked all across Network and got into contact with the legendary Big G and one of the Royal Knights asking about him; you and your friends' Juggernaut program outright kills any Digimon you put through it! Admit it!" Henry shouted at the man before him, as the man put a palm to his head as Henry's teeth gritted as he moved to walk away with Gargomon._

" _Come on, Gargomon; we're leaving!" Henry told Gargomon, as Gargomon moved to leave with Henry, up until he had heard a low growl turned into a full on shout as the older man moved to get up and moving to sock Henry in the face in blinded, uncontrolled rage. Gargomon, looking behind him, has his face form into a scowl as his eyes glow too quickly for either Henry or the older man to comprehend._

_The man was suddenly slammed with his back against a wall, as Gargomon, out of the blue, digivolved from his prior form and pinned the older man down with an uncharacteristic glare coming from the canine/rabbit hybrid in his completely armored, weapon covered form._

"…  _Leave us be." Rapidmon speaks up, as the man was cowering before Rapidmon's threat, as Rapidmon suddenly drops him to the ground and leaves for outside with Henry._

" _What do we do now?" Rapidmon asked once the two are outside, as Henry walked out towards the nearest bus station._

" _We're heading out to the outskirts of the city; I'm 18 now, work begins in an hour, and I know a guy who can arrange living conditions for us both." Henry spoke in a calmer tone towards Rapidmon._

" _What about Jiang-yu?" Rapidmon asked, as Henry looked away as the bus drew near._

"…  _We'll figure that out in due time…"_

* * *

Henry's train of thought was interrupted by knocking he heard on the door just outside of the VIP room. After having been listening to snoring from some Digimon, as well as the even louder snoring of the janitor laying on the floor almost like a hibernating bear more than a man. Henry, moving to get up out of bed as he secures his digivice around his waist into his hand, moves up the stairs towards the doors to listen.

"Um… Henry… Are you in there? Or, rather, anybody from the VIP club?" Jeri asks, as Ryo stands to the side with Ruki as Takato moves forward besides Jeri.

"Decode." Takato says, simply, as Henry finally opens the door after hearing the password.

"As much as I'd like to let you in without the password, security has been getting tighter as of late since-"

"A sleazy con artist trying to sneak a hand into every woman's-" Devimon tries to bring up, only to get a glare from Ryo and Ruki.

"Don't remind us. Anything else?" Ryo and Ruki says in unison, as WarGrowlmon steps while setting down Taomon's body, all the while Ruki shows Henry Taomon's DigiCore in her hands, as well as her unusual status with her glowing, coded eyes with Taomon's DigiCore sharing the same glow. Henry's eyes widen as he realizes what he is seeing.

"… Come with me, we're going to have to talk with Big G about this." Henry says, quietly, as he walks back down the stairs, as Ruki and Ryo take the lead afterwards. Jeri and Takato, both looking at each other for a moment, both end up following Ruki and Ryo as well; WarGrowlmon following and carrying Taomon's body down with him, as he enters last.

* * *

"So Ruki knows how to what?!" The janitor asks in a harsh tone; even Impmon recoiled as to how loud the janitor spoke when compared to his confrontation between himself and Vilemon as well.

"The Soul Link, whatever it is, is what Ruki's able to access right now because of the temporary circumstances." Ryo tells the janitor, all the while the janitor is just staring at Ruki in disbelief with Ruki maintaining her ominous, stoic gaze from this trance-like state.

' _Cool your jets, Grandis; Ruki probably has no idea how to actually use it yet.'_  The janitor thinks to himself, as he regains his composure as he looks over towards Jeri and Takato. "So why are these two here then?" The janitor asks.

"Witnesses at most; Devimon and WarGrowlmon had no business confronting Taomon. They did, however, manage to play a hand in ultimately subduing her non-lethally." Ruki says in a monotone voice, as the janitor looks uneasy, all the while Henry gives the janitor a bit of a glare.

"Is there a problem, Big G?" Henry asks, to which he's slowly greeted to the, already wide, eyes of the janitor, moving to recline back in his seat as he chuckles a bit in a low, quiet, and uncertain laughter.

"I honestly wish I knew how to answer that, Henry, I really do. The Soul Link is no joke, no matter what life-form has access to it. The fact Ruki is still alive accessing it through Taomon's DigiCore is a miracle in and of itself, for starters." The janitor says, as he looks over towards Ruki, resting his hand on his right hand as he gives her an intriguing gaze.

"But that's not even the real reason why you guys are here at this hour, isn't it? You're after the sleazy pervert trying to bed Ruki's MILF." The janitor haphazardly says, as Ruki's eyes turn into those of Taomon's save for the crystalline blue, before the janitor, without even having a chance to react, is suddenly thrown through a solid wall and into an empty room with the sound of an explosive force detonating as Ruki's fist strikes the janitor clear in the jaw.

Ryo, Jeri, Takato, and Henry are all staring; completely stunned by what they have just seen Ruki manage to do faster than they could even try and process what she even did to the janitor at all.

"You killed him didn't you?" Takato asks in a meek tone, as Devimon looks over towards the janitor with a concerned, but not overtly concerned, glance.

"He's still breathing, so I'd suggest everyone hold onto their butts and take two steps back." Devimon says, as WarGrowlmon moves to block everyone except Ruki from out of the janitor's way. The janitor, his shades having shattered, reveals his unusual, brown iris and silver pupiled eyes revealing themselves as his pupils form into cat-like slits. Within the blink of an eye, the janitor slams his feet back against the wall; pushing himself forward at an immense, ear-piercing speed as he moves to strike Ruki with a punch of his own.

He didn't get a chance to even see what would happen next; Ruki's eyes focusing on the janitor, as the janitor is effectively frozen in place before her eyes, as she casually moves to block the janitor's strike by moving his arm out of the way, as well as leaping into the air; everything around her still and motionless, as she moves to kick the janitor in his back into the ground; upon everything returning to a normal movement for her sight, the janitor lay on the ground, groaning in pain as to Ruki's instantaneous counterattack, as WarGrowlmon is trembling as to what to expect from Ruki next.

"Clever SOB you are, Ruki… Or is it Taomon? Or both? I honestly don't know; personally I never understood how the Soul Link worked aside from what I've known about it from legends past." The janitor says as he tries to lift himself back to his feet, as the janitor's entire bulk looks to be shrinking down as the janitor changes shape from a very thick, giant man to an incredibly skinny man whose skin hugged his bone, and his lips faded away to reveal his teeth as his eyes look sunken in appearance; having a very skeletal appearance aside from his added clothing's bulk.

"So is he a human, Digimon, or…?" Jeri asks about the janitor, as Ryo and Henry are both surprisingly calm about the janitor's current change in structure, as Takato looks to try and scan him with his digivice.

"It says he's human, but he doesn't remotely look the part." Takato says to Jeri, as the janitor simply laughs.

"Or even act like one…" Devimon adds in, noticing the janitor's reclining back into a metallic chair, as the janitor's eyes lay upon the different tamers in the room, especially keeping an eye on Ruki.

"That's because I'm of a different subspecies, actually, but that's a story for another day. You guys are probably more interested in getting Taomon back to normal sometime soon, yes?" The janitor asks, as he glances over towards Taomon's lifeless form.

"If Kazu and Kenta were in town this week, I'd simply have them solve the problem for ya rather than resort to me. Though since they're not here, well… if I must, then I shall…" The janitor says with a sigh mixed in with a groan. Jeri, looking at everyone else, notices everyone was a little too calm about what the janitor was showing before them in terms of what he actually is.

"Um… guys? Why aren't you bothered by this? Why isn't the janitor startling you guys at all?" Jeri asks, as Takato turns to face her first.

"For one I literally hand drawn WarGrowlmon to life, I don't think whatever Big G has going on for him is any stranger than that." Takato replies.

"I've witnessed interdimensional travel first hand, and while none of you guys would flat out believe that, I can voice for myself and admit I've seen stranger things than Big G here over the course of my career." Ryo answers to Jeri, as Jeri and the janitor both raise an eye at his choice of answer.

"I live in a world where nobody is really bothering to freak out over what happens next if a certain giant, cobalt hydra doesn't budge back over where we all came from in Japan, so honestly the lack of us noticing anything special with Martin doesn't seem too noteworthy in comparison." Henry answers for himself, as he, Ryo, and Takato turn to Ruki next; the janitor simply taking a swig of some kind of drink held in a cantina while he's being ignored, as Ruki sighs a bit.

"Well, to be honest, as much as we'd want to acknowledge anything strange with Grandis, unless he feels up to an interview all of a sudden, we're in no place to try and force the information out of him. Besides, I'd rather not make the attempt while everyone is still asleep at this hour." Ruki says, simply, as the janitor chuckles as he sets his cantina down to the side.

"An interesting selection of answers from all of you; but what do you honestly see in me worth noting, Jeri?" The janitor asks, as Jeri has everyone's eyes turning to focus on her, as Jeri looks a bit startled; biting her lip as she tries to figure out what to say or ask.

"Well, I don't know…" Jeri says, as the janitor chuckles again.

"Then why don't I decide to enlighten the new girl to the VIP Club on the basics, then, shall I?" The janitor says to Jeri, as he reclines back into his chair; his hands clasping the other as he focuses his gaze on Jeri. "First, you and Devimon can both refer to me as simply 'Big G' like anyone else here does for the most part." Big G introduces, as he watches as Jeri and Devimon give him a nod.

"Yes sir." Jeri says, as Big G listens as a clock, just above the entrance's door, has its arms snap into place at a 90 degree angle apart from another.

"3:00 AM, the graveyard shift for anyone else not one of the big family Henry and Ryo are keeping hidden down here in the catacombs of the school; at first, you think that this area here is the only place like it. However." Big G moves to stand up as he walks over towards an empty wall on his right, and presses a hidden switch, which has individual bricks open up and give way to a secret passageway.

"It would be wise if you all follow me, so that we can simply cut the chase with the reason you guys are here." Big G says to the five tamers, as Ruki follows first, followed by Henry and Ryo, and then Takato, looking at Jeri first, following alongside Jeri at once, with Devimon and WarGrowlmon entering last.

"Sheesh, the crazy shenanigans you guys must put up with in life, huh?" Devimon asks WarGrowlmon.

"Not surprising; I used to call everyone consistently as a Digimon before I achieved this form." WarGrowlmon says as he carries Taomon's body with them, as Devimon raises an eye.

"Really? As in you would call every human as, say, Jerimon? Takatomon? Rukimon?" Devimon inquires, as WarGrowlmon nods.

"It's rather simple, but then again I was simple minded before some training resulted in my IQ needing to get better scores." WarGrowlmon says, as he watches up ahead as to notice Big G leading everyone at the end of a large chamber that he and Devimon enters, as within the chamber appears to be a rusted, bronze statue of a dragon covered in feathers in an Aztec styled architecture. Devimon gives the statue an odd glance, raising an eye as to the fact he can't help but notice something otherworldly about it, all the while WarGrowlmon walks ahead of him to follow the others.

"You coming along, Devimon?" Big G yells back towards him, as Devimon looks back towards Big G's group, before eyeing the statue inquisitively as his whole hearing seems to dim a little; very, very faintly, he could hear a growl of some sorts give way into his hearing, as it soon starts to turn very human-like as giant stones of sorts could be heard shifting around akin to footsteps.

Devimon looks around the area some more, as he walks around the statue as he tries to figure out what is going on with his senses. Throughout every direction he could see and hear from, there appears to be an increasing void of darkness in the barely lit room; there were no torches, only the ever persistent, futuristic lights from before; just not bright enough to properly give light to the whole room, despite how numerous they were in the various chambers beneath the school. "Am I cursed?" Devimon asks himself.

"I don't know, are you?" Big G asks as his raspy breath can be heard directly behind Devimon, as Devimon jumps back and loudly shrieks at Big G having managed to sneak up on him by surprise; dust covering his red jacket, as Devimon gives him an angry hiss as Big G simply chuckles.

"You'll regret that one day, 'Big G'." Devimon says to him coldly, as Big G simply gazes upon the statue behind Devimon, as suddenly Devimon turns around; and notices the statue is without a lot of its former dust; the statue's head seems to have its concentration on Devimon now, almost as if it were alive. Devimon, regardless, moves to leave the room with the others and Big G, as to get done what is needed to get done, and hopefully learn more about this place.

"So then, is anybody here willing to take part in the first step of what must be done for this to work?"


	7. Chapter 6: Trinity's Forge

At the end of the hidden passageway, a room with two, giant spheres of a cyan and darker blue can be seen hovering above a table, in which a giant, motionless suit of armor is placed as a chair for Big G to sit down in as Ruki, Ryo, Jeri, Takato, and Henry stand on the opposite side of the table.

"WarGrowlmon, if you'd please be so kind." Big G says, as WarGrowlmon places Taomon's body on the giant table, as Big G shuts his eyes for a few seconds, as they open back up as his eyes glow a shining silver blue before Big G holds his hands out towards the two spheres in the room, as they fuel his body with energy.

Big G regenerates into his thicker, heavier built form, as Big G ends up holding his hands out further to which his hands separate into glowing, metallic orbs as he glances down towards Taomon.

"What kind of witchcraft if this?" Jeri asks, as Ryo looks at Jeri.

"Big G's channeling energy to prepare his system to try and perform what we'll be doing for this part of the operation." Ryo says to Jeri, quietly, as Jeri looks on towards Big G as Ruki steps forward and hands him Taomon's DigiCore, which floats into the air just above the metallic spheres in Big G's hands emerging to take the DigiCore in hand as Big G's face glances over towards Ryo, Takato, Henry, and Jeri, as he scowls as he has their digivices shine a bright light into Taomon's DigiCore.

" _ **The stars of the Ultimorian universes have been summoned forth by the King of the Ultimorian Deities; obey thy command and manifest before me a replica of a digivice used by none other than Makino Ruki!"**_  Big G speaks up, as Big G spreads his arms and suddenly claps his hands together into Taomon's DigiCore as he surges energy into it in a giant, shining array of lights that ignite the whole room into a canvas of stars and galaxies beginning to manifest, as they begin to quickly spin across the room as their lights shine down into Taomon's DigiCore.

Takato, Ruki, Henry, and Jeri look around in amazement as to the light show Big G is summoning, as Ryo doesn't give any interested acknowledgment of it. Takato suddenly gasps when the entire room shakes; appearing in the stars and galaxies appears a giant, colossal blue figure with a squid-like lower body and saurian upper body, manifesting a giant beam of light from its chest into Taomon's DigiCore. In another corner of the room, an immense, black shadow with a glowing red aura appears and lets out an ungodly wail as a bright, red light beams down into Taomon's DigiCore.

Lastly, a third, lavishly caped entity appears; pitch black in appearance, white hands and feet, and numerous red wings forming a cape appearing with a face whose only appearance was a red visor in the shape of a cross; its left hand moving forward and summoning forth a green beam of light into Taomon's DigiCore, the three otherworldly entities assist Big G with placing the DigiCore back into Taomon's body; very carefully lowering the DigiCore into Taomon's chest, as when the DigiCore is fully absorbed into her body, the three divine entities disappear as Big G's inflow of energy begins to fades, as manifesting above Taomon's chest is a shining, cyan blue digivice which floats down into Ruki's hands.

"It is done." Big G says as he is panting heavily from the exhaustion of what he had just done. Ruki gives him an odd glance.

"What exactly did you just do?" Ruki asks, as Big G tries to regain his breath.

"I had to go through some extremes to make sure your replacement digivice is not going to be overridden by your old one; I had to also completely block out the original digivice's influence from Taomon's commands as well, so that whoever the thief is can no longer access Taomon's abilities or try and command her around." Big G says, as he looks ready to pass out as he stumbles in place; Ryo and Henry quickly move towards Big G and move to help him stand by grabbing one of his arms. Big G, reverting back into his skin and bones form, looks towards Taomon as Taomon slowly begins to stir.

"R-Ruki…?" Taomon speaks as she slowly moves to get up from lying down on the table. Moving to stand to face WarGrowlmon and Devimon, she rubs her head to try and clear her mind up, "What all have I been doing up until now?" Taomon asks, to which Big G lets out a pained cough.

"Now then as much as I'm one for heartwarming reunions, if you guys don't mind I'm kind of heavily drained of virtually every trace of energy I had arranging this little fix up. I'd kind of like to get back to sleep as the sun already rises as we speak." Big G mutters to the group weakly, as he moves to slowly move back through the corridor into the main room of the VIP Club.

"Besides, Jeri? Takato? Don't you both have parents whom are concerned for you at your age?" Big G stops and turns to ask the two, as Jeri looks at Takato with a confused glance. Ruki coughs to get Big G's attention.

"When you're more awake, I'll inform you about what's going on in regards to Jeri, but as for Takato he doesn't have such an excuse for breaking curfew." Ruki says to Big G, as Big G raises an eye at her.

"Let me guess; Jeri is so heavily plagued by Autism that she can't even be so much as bothered to explain her own case at all. Is it because she doesn't know how to? Or is it because she's too scared to face reality for herself? Either way, we have much more in common than you guys might otherwise think; I give her my sympathy, but that's about all I can do right about now." Big G says to Ruki, as Jeri nervously looks at Ruki, as Ruki looks back and walks over to Jeri, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about Big G, he's just rather paranoid as a whole, whether he has a good reason or not." Ruki says to Jeri, rather quietly, as he looks around as Big G already vacates the room they're in, as Ruki, Ryo, and Henry all notice the three statues of the three different entities from which they all say projections of.

"So, Ryo, you know Big G the most; care to explain what the light show was about?" Takato asks, as Ryo shakes his head.

"Unfortunately no; as much as I'd love to tell the story, we've all got places to be at this hour; Henry's technically got every reason to kick us off of the campus grounds within the next half hour, so we'd all better leave before Henry has to enforce his work here as a guard." Ryo says to Takato as to avoid the question, as Takato sighs as he looks on towards WarGrowlmon, as he moves to leave the room.

"Come on then, WarGrowlmon; mom and dad will want to see us back home before they wake up noticing we've been gone for so long." Takato says, as WarGrowlmon shrugs and follows.

"Not my place to argue against that I suppose." WarGrowlmon says, as Devimon looks over towards Jeri, as Taomon looks over towards Ruki; Ruki's digivice gives a loud, audible sound that has energy from Taomon drain into the digivice that causes Taomon to degenerate into Renamon, as Renamon clutches her chest in pain as she tries to catch her breath.

"Ugh… Yeah, I'd rather do something relaxing and restful after what experiences I've been through under that awful man's control…" Renamon says, as Ruki sighs, as she looks over towards Ryo.

"So I'll see you later tonight?" Ruki asks, to which Ryo nods, as Ruki moves to walk out with Renamon as Ryo waves her goodbye, as Jeri moves to rush forward with Devimon following her to follow Ruki out as well.

* * *

The experience from the graveyard shift of the morning sent chills up Renamon's spine as she tries to recover; right now, Ruki and Jeri were in the café of the VIP Club in a separate building other than the school's underground club. Devimon and Renamon were both able to stay out in broad daylight in this district, as nobody batted an eye towards Digimon in plain sight outside of the café building in the form of two, giant metallic dinosaurs with one of them having twin cannons on its back and having a stumpy tail, and the other having a giant railgun on its back and being covered in rust and crystals.

"So, Jeri, why'd you pick this particular café as to get something to eat at? It's not like we couldn't have gone elsewhere to get early lunch." Ruki says to Jeri, as Jeri shook her head, as she points towards a window right next to the wall showing what was immediately in view of a neighboring building; a bundle of small, fuzz covered critters were roaming about in a pen just right outside the window.

"The ferrets from the pet store next door… right… I should have known that you would get distracted by their cuteness, Jeri." Ruki figures out rather easily, as Ruki takes a swig of her drink of soda as a large, orange and brown helmet wearing Digimon with one eye approaches Ruki at the counter.

"Refill?" The Digimon asks, as Ruki nods.

"Sure, I'll take a free refill please, Cyclonemon." Ruki says as Cyclonemon gets to taking her cup and moving to refill it from a drink dispenser nearby.

"Could I ask for another order of orange juice, please?" Jeri speaks up, as Cyclonemon gives her a look, seeing that Jeri is putting cash on the counter.

"You do realize refills are free, right?" Cyclonemon asks her, as Jeri still persists with paying when she gives Cyclonemon an odd look. Cyclonemon, reluctantly, takes the cash Jeri is giving and goes back to fetch a larger cup for Jeri in the backroom after giving Ruki her soda.

"So if you only have $15 to spend per day for lunch, why don't you use the club's free refill policy for drinks more often?" Ruki asks Jeri as she takes a small sip of her refilled soda, as Jeri shrugs.

"It just doesn't feel right, using the club's rules to get an extra drink like that; plus I don't want to get too addicted to free soda like how you are." Jeri answers Ruki, as Ruki raises an eye at the implied accusation. Regardless, Ruki can see that considering Jeri and Ruki have some space to talk considering Devimon and Renamon are elsewhere in the building and with Cyclonemon being further back in the storage, that Ruki would at least dignify Jeri with an answer.

"I can understand why, to be perfectly honest; there is a sort of withdrawal effect to soda after a while of not having some." Ruki tells Jeri quietly, as Jeri looks at her in the eye to try and figure something out.

"Is it dangerous? I mean, I'm already aware of the sugar content being problematic for some people." Jeri asks, innocently, as Ruki takes another sip of her soda before replying.

"No, well, not as a guarantee for certain people, but... it can be somewhat frustrating at times to deal with, again due to the withdrawal effect soda can sometimes have." Ruki tells Jeri, as Jeri looks a tad nervous as she looks back over towards the whole room in the café, being rather uneasy by the lack of people at this hour.

"I-I see... I'll be careful if I ever try and have some soda such as the kind you have if I ever feel like it." Jeri says to Ruki, as she can vaguely hear Cyclonemon's footsteps in another room. Ruki, having taken a longer gulp of her soda while Jeri paused, lets out a sigh as she looks back towards Jeri to give her a calm, reassuring glance.

"Do what you please, but do be careful not to learn to enjoy the taste too much to where you crave it too much for your own good." Ruki says to Jeri, as Jeri takes some time to let that answer sink in, as by the time she's lost in thought about it, Cyclonemon comes back with a larger cup than the smaller one Jeri had, nearly twice the size, as Cyclonemon looks at Jeri calmly with a bow.

"Here's your drink, ma'am, apologies for the delay." Cyclonemon says, as it looks over towards Ruki. "Will that be all for the morning?" It asks the two, as Jeri gives a nod.

"Yes, that'll be all; thank you." Ruki says to Cyclonemon as she pays her tab she has, as Jeri is looking back over towards the window where the ferrets are; watching a small, white one with a spot covered face walking over towards the glass and moving to claw at it as if trying to reach Jeri. Jeri, moving to lay a finger just above the ferret on the glass, watches as the small fuzzy critter moves to lift itself up to try and reach it. Ruki, looking at Jeri interacting with the ferret, smiles a bit as she tries to find out how to get Jeri's attention away so they can be on their way.

"Fascinating as to how you obsess over soda, but perhaps you desire something more?" A husky voice, growling as it has an oddly soothing tone to it, speaks out from behind Ruki, as a tall, wolf-like Digimon enters the café, adorned in many belts and having violet white fur and razor sharp claws on its hands, moves towards the counter and quietly gives an order for Cyclonemon to fill out.

"And who are you to judge?" Ruki asks the Digimon, as the Digimon chuckles a bit, as he notices the way in which Ruki is standing and how it contrasts to the approaching Renamon and Devimon once they both caught wind of this new guy entering the scene.

"Trust me; with a trembling form like yours, I would also desire more in life than what I have right now." The Digimon asks, as Renamon looks towards the Digimon's faces and notices something jarring; its left eye is covered in an eye patch, and three clawed marks are all around the Digimon's face as Renamon's eyes widen in response.

"Like what you see there, vixen? You should know;" The Digimon moves to stand as he mockingly lashes a claw out towards Renamon, "you're the one who gave me that scar a few days prior." The Digimon finishes, as Renamon looks at Ruki with concern, as Jeri nervously looks on as Devimon moves to take to standing by Jeri's side.

"I apologize for my actions during that time; I was not able to properly control myself because-"

"Someone had stolen your tamer's digivice?" The wolf-like Digimon asks, as Renamon blinks, about ready to ask how he knew that, but as the Digimon snaps his fingers, Cyclonemon nervously hands him a newspaper, from which the Digimon hands Renamon.

"Your name among others has been spreading across town like wildfire; your rampage during the night hours has many tamers and Digimon angry at you because of your absolutely unhinged behavior, and you expect a simple apology to be what brings an end to it? I've got news for you in which you might want to listen if you want your reputation to go away, that is." The Digimon asks, as Renamon gawks at him with a somewhat livid expression.

"What are you implying, Child of the Light?" Renamon asks, to which the wolfish Digimon simply chuckles.

"For you to assist the girl over there and her demon's mission alongside the OC creator, because I'm more than willing to vouch for your innocence to the others if you can do me a small, simple favor that requires some dirt digging here and there to achieve." The Digimon asks, "You may call me Strabimon, by the way." Strabimon introduces, as Devimon raises an eye.

"The Light Human Spirit Lobomon's younger brat of a brother?" Devimon asks, as Strabimon shoots him a glare.

"Quiet, demon; you're not so much as coming near me lest you get bombarded with your own weakness by my hands." Strabimon says, as Devimon moves to look over at Jeri and Ruki.

"Come on, let's just ditch the guy and vamoose from here, I kind of want to get to training with WarGrowl-"

"Name your price, hound." Renamon suddenly speaks up, as Strabimon gives her an intriguing look as Renamon speaks her answer loud and clear, as Strabimon pulls out a card from his pant pockets and hands it to her.

"Very well, the bounty is simple, but it needs to be done during the night, without you using Taomon as your evolved form." Strabimon states first, before taking a breath and finishing, "You're seeking an entity I personally call "Enigma", considering nobody has yet to find any actual evidence that this entity even exists let alone is the cause of everyone's problems as of late, so I assure all of you will want to listen up on what I have to say, as Enigma concerns all of us because of what little I do know." Strabimon finishes, as he moves to casually take the drink placed for him on the counter a few minutes ago by Cyclonemon, taking a few large gulps of it, and letting out a content sigh as he looks at Renamon and Devimon, as Ruki and Jeri give each other a concerned glance.

"So what will it be? Will you accept the offer to clear your name? Or are you just going to be yet another batch of tamers and Digimon left in the dark by the threat Enigma poses?"


	8. Chapter 7: Vice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (AN: Normally I wouldn't make such a big deal with this Author's Note, especially since I don't do them very often on this particular site, but so far all day today Fanfiction.net has been down, meaning at least a good chunk of my reader base for this fic are cut off from the update with this particular chapter. For the time being, I decided to upload the chapter here for all of you to enjoy, as well as hopefully try and spread the word about the current situation at FF.net in case of future incidents. Thanks in advance, MF217.)

“Ruki, may we please go home?” Jeri asks Ruki; Ruki looks over towards Devimon as she hears him utter a low growl towards Strabimon.

“Oh we’ll go home alright; right after I show wolfie here the Touch of-” Devimon tries to finish, before finding himself stuttering as his entire body glows a bright light, before his form spontaneously shrinks back into his Rookie Form of Impmon. Strabimon raised a brow at Devimon turn Impmon’s diminutive stature compared to Strabimon’s taller than average form; even Renamon wasn’t this tall.

“Care to say that again, demon?” Strabimon asks, as Impmon grows and pounds his fists together as he ignites both of them into flames. Strabimon’s legs began to glow in an intense light, as Strabimon moves to vanish in an air of light. Before that, however, the two guards from outside have manage to walk inside unnoticed; the robotic dinosaur with the missing tail grabs Impmon, as the railgun wielding mechanical T. rex grabs Strabimon.

“Quiet down, both of you!”

“As if you need to tell me what to do, RustTyrannomon!” Strabimon yells out towards its holder, RustTyrannomon.

“Calm down; Machinedramon and I are here to just keep the peace, not blow up the whole city.” RustTyrannomon speaks in a monotone, extremely heavily computerized voice to the point of not sounding human or even natural. Machinedramon, letting out a howling laughter as his much, abyssal deeper voice speaks up towards RustTyrannomon and Strabimon as he holds Impmon in his right hand.

“Everyone settle down; you’re lucky we’re both on break on an important assignment like this, so with that said, Cyclonemon! Stuffed crust pizza for me and my bud RustTyrannomon, pronto!” Machinedramon says as he drops Impmon down beside Jeri, as he stomps towards the counter as RustTyrannomon sets down Strabimon. Strabimon grumbles as he slowly moves to walk off, but Renamon manifests in front of him and shoots him a glare.

“What else did I miss out on? Why are two Ultimate Level-”

“Mega Level.” Strabimon corrects, to no avail based off of Renamon’s bemused expression.

“I know what I said, mutt; why are these two strong Digimon doing mere guard work on a backburner side of town like here?” Renamon asks, as Strabimon tries to walk past her as Impmon still looks not so happy at Strabimon.

“Whatever, punks; one thing I know is certain is that whatever reason those two are here, it means the legendary Big G himself is scared of something. Or, perhaps Mr. Katou made a bad move with another bargain, but who I am to judge his reckless behavior?”

Ruki, Renamon, and Impmon couldn’t move or even speak fast enough before Jeri was quick to grab Strabimon’s right ear and tug him down to her face.

“Yesss, anything you’d like to tell me about my dad?!” Jeri asks, as Ruki looks stunned as Renamon slowly backs away from Jeri’s startlingly angry form. Impmon doesn’t seem to know what’s going on; he stays close just to make sure Jeri doesn’t get hurt by Strabimon, but he also stays just enough distance to make sure he doesn’t provoke Jeri’s wrath.

Strabimon remains silent as he maintains a stoic glare towards Jeri; he couldn’t help but smirk at how Jeri, a 16 year old girl looking no more intimidating than someone like Takato, didn’t even remotely intimidate him as much as Ruki standing off to the side did.

“… Cute. You honestly expect to threaten me for information I don’t even have? The only bit of information I do have is to check out the alleyway towards the northern side of town; strange humans have been conversing there, and some of them looked rather fancily dressed at that.” Strabimon says, as Ruki moves to carefully pry Jeri away from Strabimon.

“We’ll be on our way, thank you very much.” Ruki says, as Renamon moves over to pick up Impmon and carry him over her shoulders, before walking out of the door as Ruki gestures with a nod to the door for Jeri to follow her out. Jeri, still staying where she is, mouths to Ruki about wanting to make sure her father is alright; Ruki responds in the same fashion to not worry about it for now, and for her to ignore Strabimon’s words for the time being.

* * *

Ruki and Jeri are walking through the streets towards the northern side of town; normally, Ruki wouldn’t have led Jeri this way after what Strabimon said, but the fact Takato lives in the same general direction didn’t give her much of a choice.

Takato’s household was unique in that it doubled as a pastry shop on the first floor; on the second floor, the building served as a housing unit for Takato’s parents as well as Takato himself. WarGrowlmon was seen degenerated into his Rookie Form, Guilmon, as he stood a lot smaller; lacking the white hair and metallic armor that made his larger Ultimate Form more menacing in comparison, as well as lacking the significant bulk as well.

Guilmon looks towards Ruki and Jeri and gives the two a cheerful wave; Ruki and Jeri wave in return as well, as just before they reach the front door, someone walks out and out into view, making Ruki’s face scrunch up on sight as this taller man, having curly, bleached blond hair, sapphire blue eyes, and a very well trained physique, as he was paying more attention to his phone in his hand to notice Ruki or Jeri.

“Ah; fair weather today, Rumiko. Why ruin the daylight hours with your text right now? You can’t even wait for tonight, can you? You want me that badly?” The man speaks on his phone, as Guilmon, Renamon, and Impmon look at the man with a scowl as Jeri is the only one oblivious to what’s going on; Ruki wasn’t even bothering with politeness as she walks toward the man in question, cracking her knuckles together in her hands, before moving to punch the man square in the jaw and sending him recoiling back from the impact.

“Watch your mouth; there are minors present.” Ruki says as to the man’s sleazy choice of words, as the man looks at Ruki in stunned silence as he watches Ruki and Jeri walk inside to see Takato and his family. Impmon didn’t even realize he was sitting on thin air at the moment; Guilmon rushes forward to grab him, as Renamon mysteriously vanished from sight long before the man could see her.

“Odd… Could’ve sworn I saw someone familiar among you freaks… Fortunately for you, I have a date with a phenomenal blonde to deal with.” The man speaks, as he moves to walk off with a free hand of his touches where Ruki had punched him; once he walks out of view, Renamon jumps into view of Guilmon and Impmon.

“Good lord, if you’re both that angry with him, just fill his corpse with diamonds while you’re at it.” Impmon tells Renamon, as Renamon looks at him curiously.

“Diamonds?” Renamon asks in confusion, as Impmon raises an eye.

“Diamond Storm? You mean you don’t know how to use it? As in, spreading your arms out and firing glowing shards at your target?” Impmon asks, as Renamon remains quiet for a moment, before placing her head in her hand for a moment as she sighs heavily, before moving towards a large, wooden log standing beside an alleyway next to the building, as Renamon spreads her arms out.

“Koyousetsu!” Renamon calls, as large, glowing shards appear in front of her, before raining onto the wooden log at high speed and imbedding themselves into the log; the numerous shards cutting into the bark cleanly. Renamon walks over towards the log and grabs one of the shards, as she walks back over to Impmon and Guilmon, holding it in clear view.

“I’m sorry; but they’re not diamonds; they’re leaves.” Renamon points out to Impmon, as Impmon groans.

“Diamonds, leaves, does it truly make a difference?”

“Yes!” Renamon and Guilmon say, as Impmon puts his face into both of his palms as he growls in annoyance.

“… Whatever; I’m still calling it Diamond Storm any day.” Impmon says, as Renamon shrugs.

* * *

“I need to use the phone, if you don’t mind.” Ruki asks Takato’s mother, as she gestures towards a room which isn’t occupied upstairs for Ruki to head into to talk in private with whomever she needs to call. Ruki, letting out an exhausted sigh, moves towards said room, as she looks back at Takato and Jeri trying to cook something in an oven downstairs; smiling warmly as she sees the two interact, she can only hope Takato can keep his cool while she’s upstairs.

“So, in a medium mixing bowl, we combine the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and baking soda.” Takato tells Jeri, as makes sure she’s watching him as he moves to do what he said for preparing to put in the oven sometime after this. Jeri’s attention is focused solely on Takato; a bit too much so, as right now she doesn’t even realize she’s staring at him.

“Next, beat together the vanilla, egg, sour cream, milk, and oil in a small bowl.” Takato says, off of memory alone, as he hands Jeri a small bowl with the ingredients in question off to the side on the counter. Jeri blushes a bit as she is handed the small bowl, but nods nevertheless as she moves to try and put the individual ingredients in.

“Vanilla, egg, sour cream…” Jeri begins to say off of the top of her head; first adding a little bit extra of the first three ingredients, before moving on to the milk next. As she tries to add in the milk before the remaining wet ingredients, Jeri stumbles a bit and ends up overflowing the bowl with the milk to where droplets of it begin to cover the floor around her feet. Takato, focusing on making sure the oven is the right temperature as well as his own medium bowl, doesn’t notice Jeri goofing up just yet.

Jeri, in haste, moves to grab another small bowl and attempt to mix in the wet ingredients again from scratch. As Jeri is about to add in the oil, she notices the oil bottle over beside Takato, as she moves to reach for it as she steps into the spilt milk; as her footing becomes slippery, Jeri yelps in surprise as she ends up spilling her entire small bowl, as well as knocking over Takato by accident as they both fall to the ground; Jeri landing on her hands and belly as Takato lands on his back.

As Takato moves to sit up as he coughs from some of the ingredients having filled the air as a dust-like particle from the accident, Takato looks towards Jeri and is about to ask if she’s alright; he stutters at his wording, however, as Jeri’s own fallen over state gave Takato a rather uneasy view up her skirt, and from what pattern he could see on Jeri’s undergarments, he didn’t want to know why Jeri was deliberately wanting anyone to see them.

“S-Sorry…!” Jeri says as she moves to sit on her knees, as well as turning back towards Takato; her whole face flushes red as she sees something around Takato’s crotch; Takato, quickly realizing what is going on, moves to cover that area with his hands as his face flushes red as well.

“L-Let’s just hurry and get to cleaning this mess up!” Both Jeri and Takato say at once as to drop the embarrassing subject entirely, as the two only further blush as they help each other to stand with Takato moving to grab cleaning supplies to clean up after the mess he and Jeri unwittingly made. Jeri has too much on her mind right now, especially after that small moment of weakness; Takato is too busy thinking as to how he and Jeri had agreed to change the subject in near perfect timing with each other.

* * *

Back at the VIP Club, Big G is back to sleeping where he was the night prior; Meramon and Digitamamon are cleaning up, as Cyberdramon is leaning against a wall; snoring loudly as he sleeps even louder than the otherwise dead silent Big G. Digitamamon, noticing this all too well, groans a bit towards Meramon quietly.

“Hey, why is he even still here instead of with Ryo anyways? Doesn’t Ryo know how dangerous his job is?” Digitamamon asks Meramon, as Meramon looks over at Cyberdramon and shrugs.

“Ask the sleeping bear in the room next door; he’s the reason why he called in Cyberdramon for assistance today.” Meramon says, as Digitamamon blinks.

“Oh don’t tell me; this is all part of this big “Mega Radar” that Big G keeps worrying about as of late, isn’t it?” Digitamamon asks Meramon, as walking into the room appears a Greymon-species with a giant, mechanical arm, purple skin, metallic parts on the legs, tail, and head with dragonfly wings and an uncharacteristic lack of stripes.

“This is why I miss the days of File Island; Machinedramon didn’t have anywhere near as big of an area to need to guard, let alone require assistance to have his radar focus on something nearby.” MetalGreymon speaks, as Digitamamon and Meramon look at him.

“So what exactly is this Mega Radar Big G needs so many of the Mega Level Digimon members for, anyways?” Meramon asks MetalGreymon, as MetalGreymon shrugs.

“Something feral and lurking about; possibly the Enigma creature making the rounds, but from what I can tell, the Digital Fields generated by us Ultimate Level Digimon or weaker are not big enough to track down what Big G is looking for.” MetalGreymon speaks, as the door opens as Henry and Rapidmon walk into the room into the conversation.

“That’s not the only reason; according to Martin himself, as well as myself from personal experience, every time we’ve tried to track Enigma ourselves, anybody who wasn’t Mega Level simply ended up being immediately degenerated to Rookie in an instant.” Henry says to the three staff Digimon.

“Yeah, and for whatever reason, Big G and Ryo are not willing to share information with us other than what we already know about Enigma as it is.” Rapidmon says, before degenerating down to Terriermon on his own free will, as Terriermon sits down on Henry’s head with his huge ears wrapping around his head like a hood.

“Besides, you guys need to relax and realize that the school has a built-in radar to search anything that intrudes on any of our own Digital Fields as is.” Terriermon says cheerfully, all the while beginning to doze off on Henry’s head. Henry, looking over towards a monitor in the room, looks at the various outposts the VIP Club has; each dot on the screen has two different, Mega Level Digimon and a tamer stationed there, as their own Digital Fields generated end up stacking with each other’s to increase their search radius, leading to only very, very small areas excluded from the radar from within the city.

Henry uses the touch screen on the monitor to bring up two units near Takato’s household in particular, designated as “Raijinmon and Fujinmon” respectively.

“How’s the weather up north you guys?” Henry calls the duo stationed there, as a southern sounding voice chuckles a bit over the communication link.

“Relax, Henry; everything’s just fine; unless, of course, you count the humans and their mobster mentality up in this part of town, but it’s not our fault Big G got absolutely livid at us the last time we tried to interfere.” Raijinmon said, as Fujinmon nods.

“Besides, our tamers are over nearby with Rusty and Mugen getting lunch; nothing has been spotted over the past several hours, and we have plenty of D-Power to spare in case they’re gone longer than that. How’s Central Command holding up today if I may ask?” Fujinmon asks, as Henry looks around and everyone and gets a nod from each person and Digimon in the room.

“Surprisingly all clear; you know Big G, he’s got this place heavily guarded as is. Which reminds me, care to share any info as to what exactly you’ve been told to search for?” Henry asks, as Fujinmon is about to speak up, before being shushed by Raijinmon as to keep quiet; something on the radar approaches the duo in an alleyway not far from them, as Fujinmon brings it up on screen for Henry to see.

“Mobster hour right now it looks like; I recognize the brunettes but I don’t recall there ever being a redheaded stepchild among them before.” Fujinmon says, as Raijinmon looks carefully at the group exiting their cars.

“Wait a second… The head honcho is addressing the new guy as ‘Mr. Katou’. Don’t we have a new recruit with that same surname?” Raijinmon asks, as Henry’s eyes widen.

“Increase the audio detection I think I’ll need to hear this.” Henry orders the two, as Fujinmon adjusts the audio levels for Henry to hear.

Just as the audio levels were adjusted, a gunshot could be heard from the feed being given by Fujinmon and Raijinmon; the “head honcho”, holding a revolver in one hand, didn’t even so much as acknowledge the now dead body of one of the mob members; a much younger, relatively 18 year old man whose death has his entire face scrunched permanently in a horrified expression; a bullet hole in the chest, and all he gets from the main man was having his head stepped on and his corpse walked over by the leader, whom now was pointing the revolver at Mr. Katou.

“You set us up, Mr. Katou; you promised us the money would be around here within the past week, and now our big agent is nowhere to be found with the briefcase.” The head mobster speaks, as Mr. Katou is visibly shaken by the sudden murder of one of the men before him; the fact the leader didn’t even show any emotion at all only further unnerved Mr. Katou, as well as Henry’s eyes narrowing as he watches further.

“It’s not my fault that fox man isn’t around to keep the goods secured, Mr. Eriksen!” Mr. Katou says while doing the best to remain brave in this situation. Mr. Eriksen, however, didn’t appear to express emotion much less-

“Nobody is the boss of what I actually do or how I do it; only I make the calls as to what my expression is at any time.”

Cyberdramon glances over towards the bedrooms as Big G grumpily walks out of the room, his entire face wide-eyed and teeth seething with some kind of unyielding rage just waiting to be awoken.

“U-Uh… Big G, do you need a moment?” Cyberdramon asks in concern for Big G, as Big G slowly looks over towards Cyberdramon with a sound akin to bone cracking being heard while doing so. Cyberdramon looks a tad uneasy, gazing upon the boss of this club in such an enraged state. “Is there anything I can do to help calm you down?” Cyberdramon asks.

“… Yes, yes there is; tell Ryo I need his digivice for a moment, because you and I have some important business to attend to.” Big G says to Cyberdramon, all the while startled when Mr. Eriksen suddenly busts up laughing as another mob member stood by his side; clearly Big G missed a good chunk of the conversation, as Mr. Katou was trembling at the sight of the laughing Mr. Eriksen casually strangling one of his own men beside him.

“You know nothing of me, Mr. Katou; you don’t even know my first name, so allow me to apologize for not informing you and let me formally introduce myself; my name is Enric, son of Erik; you’ll probably never meet him while you still breathe, though; he’s but  a memory in this forgotten world, now.” Enric says to the man, as Mr. Katou gulps in nervousness.

“Why are you holding me at charge for this fallout, anyways? I’m just doing my job and it’s the Casanova who screwed the job up, not me!” Mr. Katou says in his defense, but Enric simply gazes upon him all the while tossing the man in his grasp down to the ground; twirling his revolver and firing a shot into the man’s gut without so much as flinching as the man’s coughing could be heard as he bleeds.

“Really now? Then by any chance do you know what happened to the fox, Mr. Katou? Surely, that wasn’t your daughter I had seen intruding on my property when the fox was last seen, correct?” Enric says, as Henry clenches his fist as Big G is talking to Ryo over the phone in the background.

“NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!” Impmon shouts over towards the men in question, taking Fujinmon, Raijinmon, and Henry by surprise when they hear how loud he comes in. “Impmon, Digivolve To…! Devimon!” Devimon reemerges from Impmon’s smaller form and appears in a once again taller form towards the group of men before him.

“Enric, you didn’t literally make a deal with the devil, did you?!” Mr. Katou asks of Enric, to which Enric simply grins as numerous, sharp teeth can be seen in his smirk.

“Perhaps, perhaps not; what does it matter to you?” Enric asks as he reaches for something in his pocket, only to find whatever it was is now missing.

“Looking for this?” Ruki asks as she holds up her new Digivice, to which Renamon approaches the scene in question; tapping the top of her digivice, her eyes suddenly spark the crystalline blue from last night, as Renamon’s eyes do the same. The man simply looks over towards Renamon and Devimon with shock.

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play? No matter, I’ve got a backup anyways.” Enric says, as manifesting in the area had something dark appear in the middle of the floor; Fujinmon and Raijinmon’s radars go off like no tomorrow, loud enough to get Big G’s attention just before he and Cyberdramon were about to leave, so as to check what’s going on-screen on the radar. Emerging from the opening in the ground, a black vortex can be seen in the middle of the road as it grows larger by bleeding through the pavement. Appearing from the vortex were small, bright red, pinprick eyes, as it lets out a dark surge of energy as it slowly rises from the ground in a very sludge-like fashion; Renamon’s eyes widen, all the while Devimon looks ready to fight.

“Proceed with caution you guys; that’s not an ordinary entity you’re dealing with.” Big G tells them, as Henry blinks.

“Then just what is that… thing?” Henry asks, to which Big G has a careful look at the screen, closing his eyes as he lets out a sigh before speaking one word.

“Darigus.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (AN: I forgot to mention this originally, but the reason for RustTyrannomon's type of electronic voice is because his voice is a tribute to Stephen Hawking, who passed away recently on March 14th of this year.)


	9. Chapter 8: Darigus the Sane

"Is it one of yours?"

Cyberdramon's voice spoke up, oddly calm as to what Big G had said as to who this mysterious entity is in the camera feed. Before Big G could speak up however, he hears a phone ring with a very distinct tone to it, as Henry looks at Big G with confusion upon recognizing the tone in question.

"Who uses a satellite phone in this day and age?" Henry asks, as the sound of the door being flung open with immense force could be heard as Ryo, standing weakly as he pants heavily from exhaustion, looks towards Big G on the phone again, giving Henry a glance as if to question who he's talking to now.

"Probably wasn't joking when he said he's old as dirt despite his looks…" MetalGreymon pipes in as he notices something intriguing with Big G's expression and confidence dropping, and fast at that. Whomever it was caused Big G to begin nervously twitching before sweating heavily as very rapidly the giant man makes a beeline for the shower room, as Henry's eyes focus on Big G.

"Martin, where are you going? The showers were just cleaned last night!"

"Whoever said the showers are what needed cleaning right now? I've got to hurry and tidy up or else I'm in neck deep; Ryo, hold the fort while I get myself into the shower!" Big G states to Henry and Ryo in a tone sounding incredibly bothered and spooked by something; Cyberdramon and MetalGreymon both had their jaws drooping with that choice of words Big G had spoken, as if wondering if something more was going on than they knew of with Darigus appearing before Impmon, Ruki, and Renamon.

Ryo and Henry simply give each other an equally stunned look at each other as they let the implications of Big G's words sink in, before finally asking to themselves, "Since when did Big G ever shower?"

* * *

_**"̨̕͟G̡͢͡E͢͡͡Ţ͜͜ ̡̨̡̛̀O͘͟͠͡U̸̢͜͢͝T̵̀́̀̕"͢** _

Darigus' sudden, vocal outburst causes the entire ground beneath Enric, Mr. Katou, Ruki, Jeri, and all of the Digimon present to shake and tremble, all the while Darigus' alleged, visible ribcage splits apart and stretches apart into scrawny wings that emanated with a massive, red aura concentrating into spherical shapes.

"Devimon! Cover me! Renamon, Matrix Evolution…!" Renamon speaks as she suddenly ignites and sparks with an intense surge of energy that rips apart her entire outer exterior, revealing a wire mesh frame underneath. Devimon, meanwhile, flies directly in front of the digivolving Renamon just before Darigus could attempt to attack her mid-transformation.

"Whomever or whatever you are, you shall know the Touch of Evil!" Devimon yells as both of his arms propel forward and strike at Darigus, claws bared and all as he slowly approaches the aberration while blocking its path to Renamon.

Darigus, as if on cue, fires out an immense, red spectral beam from its mouth directly onto Devimon, all the while shrieking with the sound of a gigantic bat's ungodly call. A shockwave emanates from Darigus' form; covering the entire nearby area in dark, black and red particles that explode into an intense fog to cover the area in darkness illuminated by only a blood red glow.

As the seams to Renamon's body refabricates into her being, an entire dress and armored shoulders manifest as a dress, alongside a tall cap and long, baggy pants and sleeves. Her face restructured into a more elderly form, and her paws having their claws sheathed for the moment, her tail visible again, as the now fully evolved Taomon calls out as an intense aura manifests from within her DigiCore, before suddenly being unleashed as a radiant aura surrounding herself as Ruki's eyes synchronize with Taomon's in a shining blue.

_**"͏̧̛͞C҉̴E̡̛͜͝Ą͢͜S̷̢͟͜È̷̢̢̀!̴̶̢͏̵"̨̕͡**_  Darigus shouts abruptly upon noticing Taomon's radiant energy, as its sludge-like body moves to slowly turn around as its wing-like appendages move to drag itself away from Taomon. Moving away from the, oddly frozen, forms of Enric and Mr. Katou, Darigus moves to get away from Taomon and Ruki as its entire shadowy, sludge-like form sinks into the ground below to try and escape.

"Hold it right there, fiend!" Devimon yells as his arms turn to shadow and slam into the ground; clutching at the entity's shoulders as an ungodly shriek is heard as Darigus is forcefully uprooted from the ground. The sound of an unusual pulsation can be heard as Darigus simply gazes upon Devimon with completely solid red eyes without a hint of any humanity in the creature. As Taomon jumps up at an incredible speed, she summons up a seal of yin-yang energy to concentrate around Darigus and encase itself around it.

"Oṃ!" Taomon calls, as suddenly the seal surges with an electrical current as Darigus' wings spastically move about as loud, bat-like shrieking can be heard shouting from the wounded shade without mercy and all unleashed fury. Darigus, in an instant, disappears into seemingly nothingness, with only its eyes visible before even they vanish as well.

_**"̶̴͇͚C҉̧̛̹̰̠Ẹ̸͇͓̦͇̲̟̺́A͏̨̮S͔͔̠̬̻̙͢E̤͠ ̥̦̻Ì̢̤̲̞͕̭̖̩̲̕ ̺̤S̟̫̮̭͎͖͚̮͟͝͠Ạ̛̗͇̹̮̮͍̘̻I̛̦͓̭̺͎̭͚͇͠Ḓ̢̨̻͝!̣͇͈"̦͕͎̗͙͘ͅͅͅ** _

Darigus repeats its command from before, as Taomon pulls out a massive brush-like staff and begins to paint a seal in the air in a vibrant pure white energy.

"Bonhitsusen!" Taomon calls, as the seal scatters into paint splatters as it encircles Darigus and the individual specks begin to bombard Darigus individually with an explosive force, causing Darigus to unleash an ungodly howl of some kind of draconic entity of sorts; the sound of the roar, different from all of Darigus' other vocals so far, has Devimon's eyes widen as Taomon looks unfazed despite this.

"Taomon, be careful; its mimicking sounds of other life-forms!" Devimon says, as Devimon looks over towards Ruki, "Ruki! Call Taomon off and-"

Ruki, much like the two men and some other mobsters still in the area, were completely frozen and still in movement; the entire air seemed to be polluted with a massive, pitch black and reddish mist of sorts; Devimon only know realizes that the contaminated air seems to be particles that are slowly drifting away from something; as Devimon and Taomon quickly notice, the particles are shedding from Darigus before them after each attack they make against it.

"Taomon, any ideas as to get Darigus'… skin, for lack of a better term, to stop its shedding gimmick so we can restore our tamers and the other humans back to normal?" Devimon asks, as Taomon jumps down to stand beside Devimon; Darigus, despite being struck by Bonhitsusen, is still invisible for the most part, as the poisoned air continues to take fold as Taomon looks around and notices the skin on every human in radius is slowly beginning to solidify into stone.

"… We need to hurry; go find Rapidmon, I'll look for WarGrowlmon. I have a solution that might work but you're just going to have to trust me and hurry, now!" Taomon commands, as she jumps over to the pastry shop from which she last saw Guilmon standing, but the red theropod was nowhere to be seen, as Taomon sniffs the air to attempt to track his scent, only to suddenly begin coughing and hacking at the mere attempt.

"Careful, Taomon!" Devimon tells her as he looks towards her and sees Taomon having disappeared in her attempt to search for Guilmon. Devimon looks around and notices everything is quiet; no movement can be felt from all angles, but at the same time, Devimon couldn't help but feel like eyes were everywhere and gazing all upon him.

"It's all your fault."

A familiar voice rings in Devimon's mind, as Devimon turns in the direction he hears it the most, only to find nobody there; not even a shred of movement in this thickly contaminated air. Devimon, quietly and increasingly slowly, takes in a few breaths only to find himself holding back the need to choke on what exactly is filling the air right now.

"Come back."

Devimon hears a voice again, as he turns around to face the speaker; Darigus' red, unflinching eyes greet him, only to quickly vanish into the distance; Devimon moves to take flight and give chase, but Darigus' eyes move backwards faster than Devimon can fly towards him. The smog blinds him in the heat of the moment, Darigus' eyes vanish from sight, just as Devimon crashes face first into a wall made of solid concrete.

As Devimon pulls himself off of the wall and shaking himself to get his senses back together after a sudden impact, Devimon couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. "You think this little mind game of yours scares me, whatever you are?!"

_**"͏Y͢o҉u͜ ͞don't҉ ̵eve͏n ͜k̢now̴ ͞my n͠am̷e̕. Ćuri̶ous."** _

Darigus' voice is much more prevalent from Devimon's hearing, as Devimon looks around only to see nothing but more of the thick smog. After a moment it hits him; he notices he's facing Enric and Mr. Katou from behind, when before he was facing them from the front, which means…

"JERI!" Devimon yells as he suddenly flies towards Takato's household to check and see if Jeri is alright; Devimon reaches the building and slowly enters, and sees Jeri frozen alongside Takato, almost half of their bodies twisted into stone. Devimon cringes at the sight of Jeri frozen in such a way, clenching his fist in frustration as the door behind him suddenly slams shut as Devimon yelps a bit as to the loud noise of the door. Devimon breaths quietly as the pace of his breathing hastens; only taking in so much air as to avoid inhaling the toxins.

"Get a hold of yourself Devimon! You're a Demon Lord in a lesser form, for crying out loud!" Devimon tells himself; his eyes widen once he realizes what he just said. He never realized it until now; he never actually told the others that he had already been fully final form before he arrived in the real world. Did they need to know about his past?

Now wasn't the time to fool around so lightly; those thoughts would have to be for another time, as now Devimon walks through the household in search of where Darigus could be hiding; the sounds of something pierces the silence of the frozen household for now, but it quickly stops. Devimon takes a moment to get his thoughts together and carefully listen; nothing can be heard in the immediate vicinity, but something can somehow be felt in Devimon's nerves.

Moving up the stairs into the living quarters of the Matsuki family, Devimon doesn't have any luck trying to find Darigus just yet; the stairs become swallowed in shadow as Devimon walks up to the second floor, as Devimon looks around and is quick to realize something is trapping him here; something wants him to be here, but is it actually Darigus?

At the same time, though, Devimon notices all of the doors that were open suddenly shut; the one that was already closed opens up and reveals a strange glow from within. Devimon walks towards it to investigate it, and the contents of which disturb him a little.

Jeri's bedroom appears before his eyes; littered with plushies, but none of which are the ones he remembers seeing before. All of them were human plushies, all of which dressed to look exactly like Takato. Devimon tries to think as to what exactly he is seeing, as he slowly takes a step forward to investigate the bedroom; the windows outside show a red, blinding fog as the skies are painted red as if aflame.

The sound of a channel changing on the aged television in Jeri's bedroom clicks through Devimon's mind like no tomorrow, as Devimon slowly turns to face the television set in question, and gazes in very closely to see what was on the small screen. Visible on-screen is the player character of Digimon World back at Jijimon's House, in which the player has a humanoid, angel Digimon undergoing digivolution, but rather than something from the next form, instead becomes a Devimon which has Devimon confused.

"Strange… I knew Angemon Death Digivolving into my own kind is to be expected in this game, but still… Why show this?" Devimon asks, as the channel suddenly changes and shows a girl who resembles Jeri standing before a guy who resembles Takato, in a park-like area with the background distorted and heavily resembling flesh and ooze.

The girl breaks apart on-screen, appearing to transform into a hideous abomination; the animation shown bleeds into pitch black, as Devimon leaps back a bit as Darigus' red eyes emerge from the television as Darigus manifests from it; simply glaring upon Devimon as its bat-like head towers up to the ceiling of the room.

_**"͜W͠ha̛t ̛a͜re̢ y̕o͜u ͡àttemptin̛g҉ to h͝idé?̛ ͜W̕h͞at͞ ̧d̨o ̷y̸o̡u kn̨o͢w̵ o͟f̀ t̢h́ę ̨inći̶de͠ńt̵?"** _

Darigus asks Devimon those two questions, as Devimon grits his teeth in anger as he lets out a low rumble.

"What made it your business, fiend?! You're hurting my tamer and my friends; and for what reason?!" Devimon shouts towards Darigus, as Darigus doesn't even flinch or even move to indicate a response.

_**"͝I ͟know ̛thé ͟tr̕u̵t̨h m̧ore tḩan̸ you͠ ev͠er ̵wo͘u̴ld,͠ B͠e҉él҉ze͏bum͘on."** _

"It's…" Devimon tries to say about how Darigus said his name wrong, only to quickly notice the fact Darigus apparently knows of his prior existence in the digital world.

"H-How… h-how did you know?! Tell me!" Devimon shouts to Darigus in a commanding tone, as Darigus simply tilts its head 90 degrees to the side.

_**"̢͜Y҉́oú'́͘ŕ̴͟e̶ ̡͝n̷ot̢ w̸h̷͜o͘m̵̀͞ I̷͟͟ ę́x̢͜p͜e͟ć͟t̕͡e͠d ̵ţ͟o ̶͠b͏e͘͘ t̴h̴͡͠i͢͝s ͏g͏͘i̶rl̡'͝s̶̷ ̕̕͟p̶̕͢a̷͝r̨͘͝tn͢e̶̸r͞.̴ ̴͞͝Y̵̢͠ou ͘͟v҉̧a̸̧҉ļu̢e͞͞ ͝h̸͝e͟r͘͝ ̧t̶h͘a̧ţ̴͠ ҉m͝u̵c҉ḩ,҉͡ d̶̨͠ơ̴͢ ̨yo̢͡u͞͞? ̵W̧h̀̕͝at͏̕ wi͏́̕l̶͘ļ͡͝ ͘͝y͠o̕u͏̢̛ ̵g̵̢į͟v́e͜͢͡ ͏͢f̛͜͞or̷̨ ̶͡he̴r̨̕ ̀͢l̴įf̡̢͜ȩ̨͜?̕͘"̵** _

"I'll give her the freedom of knowing I won't have to see you haunting her or her friends! BEGONE!"

_**"̛͜T̀͝͝H̷̨E͡N̷͘ ̴̕͞P̡̕͢Ŗ̷̧̀͏O̵͜V̶́Ę̀ ̀́͜͟͡Í́͞T̷̀͘͜͝ ̵̧̨͝͞T̶̛̛҉O̡ ̵͝ḾE̡͡͞͏ ̨Ţ̧̀͝H̛̀À̢̨̛͟T̢́͟͝ ̸̶͜͞Ý̡͟͠O̴̶̴̡U̷̢͢͝͡ ̨̀̀͞҉H҉̸͜A̵̢̡̧V͡E͏ ̡͘W̶͘͟H̵A̸͟͏͡T̶̨̀̕͞ ̴̨̛I҉͝T̨͟ ̷҉̶T͢͡Á̶̧̀K҉̕E̡̢͘͜͟S̷̷̡͡!̴̸̛͢͟"̵͟͜** _

"FINE! Touch of Evil!" Devimon says as he lunges at Darigus and wraps his arms and legs around it to attempt to lock it into place, as his wings propel the two of them back outside, phasing through the wall in the process as Taomon arrives on the scene with WarGrowlmon and Rapidmon finally having arrived.

"Devimon? What is that thing?!" WarGrowlmon asks, as Devimon slams himself and Darigus into the ground, before Devimon rapidly swipes with his claws at Darigus' face as the howling shrieks could be heard piercing the sky; Darigus' wings attempt to close around Devimon, but Devimon merely smirks as he grabs hold of them before they can.

"Cute; you think your exposed ribs can still block your core; tell ya what, think of this as an equivalent exchange. You can be free of my grasp, and in exchange, I'LL TAKE YOUR RIBS!" Devimon says as he moves to have his boots step onto Darigus' exposed chest, as he squats and pushes his legs forward as he drags his arms out and forcefully severs Darigus' bony protrusions off of it as a bright red core is suddenly exposed in Darigus' central body.

"Rapidmon! WarGrowlmon! Focus on Darigus! ON MY CUE!" Taomon says as she suddenly sparks and ignites a bright yellow; WarGrowlmon glows an intense red, as Rapidmon glows a vibrant green.

"TRINITY BURST!" All three Ultimate Level Digimon speak in unison as they all rush forward and jump right into Darigus' exposed chest; all three converting into spears of energy that all drill into Darigus' core at once, before finishing it off with a piercing motion as the three degenerate into their Rookie forms after how much power was used to perform that move.

Darigus' near endless shrieking can be heard as Darigus' entire body surges with an electrical current as a blinding, flashing light engulfs Darigus' form, before finally an intense, draconic roar of rage is heard from Darigus before his body implodes into a black, spherical void that collapses his entire body into a shadow in the ground.

Darigus' remnant shadow, meanwhile, suddenly draws in all of the black and red particles like a vacuum as the entire process of everything turning to stone reverses itself; Ruki is the first one to realize she can move again, as Enric and Mr. Katou are freed next as both of the two immediately flee the scene while everything is still blinded by Darigus' dark light absorbing all of its shed material back into itself.

"What's going on?!" Ruki asks out of frustration and also a bit of confusion, as Darigus finishes reabsorbing itself into one piece before Darigus' shadow attempts to quickly crawl towards Ruki at an alarming speed, stopped only by a loud, powerful slam of someone's foot causing Darigus to let out a high-pitched shriek in pain.

"You never learn after all of these years, D the Superior?!" Big G interrupts as his foot holds down Darigus in place; Ruki is about to question how Big G got here so fast, but is too busy noticing how oddly clean Big G is; all the way down to him being dressed in a white tuxedo and a nice top hat of a matching color.

"Uh… Big G, I hate to ask at an inappropriate time, but what gives with the suit and cleanliness?" Ruki asks, as Big G simply chuckles a bit as he forcefully picks up Darigus' shadow from the ground as Darigus manifests as an incredibly small, helpless bat in his hand.

"Nothing you need to be concerned of; I'm just on my way to a fancy dinner with a suitor and unfortunately Darigus decides to step in the middle of the road." Big G says, as Renamon, Guilmon, and Terriermon look at him in confusion, as Devimon blinks.

"Some glass house you have; or is this somebody unrelated to Ruki's mom?" Devimon asks, as Big G looks at Devimon with an extremely nervous look.

"Trust me if I told you, you guys wouldn't believe me; only thing I can say is that Ruki's mom is not who it is. Only time I heard mention of her today aside from now is that Kizmel had to get herself clean and asked Ruki's mom for the favor." Big G says, as he looks over towards the tiny, helpless form of Darigus in his hands, before moving to clutch him and curl him up into a ball as Big G summons forth a giant, crudely made hat resembling a hammer as he sets Darigus down on the ground.

"Unfortunately for Darigus here, he must be punished after what delays all of us are through so far." Big G says, as Darigus' eyes widen as to look at Big G's oddly shaped hat.

_**".̛.͝.͜ ̶Don'͘t̢ eve̸n̸."́** _

"SUBALUWA!" Big G shouts as in a sudden fury he slams the hat's hammerhead down upon Darigus causing him to audibly explode into particles upon being crushed underneath; seemingly into nothing, all the while Big G disposes of the hat and walks off now that Darigus is disposed of.

"… I speak Japanese and even I don't know what exactly he said just there." Renamon says as she watches as Big G leaves, as Ruki sighs as everything has calmed down.

"We should get back to our usual business; I'm just glad all of that is over." Ruki says, as she looks at Devimon, "Keep an eye on Jeri for me for today, alright? I've got things I need to attend to on my own for the next few hours." Ruki says to Devimon, before walking off with Renamon, as Devimon waves as Guilmon and Terriermon walk up to Devimon as all four of them wave and-

"Wait, four?" Devimon asks, as he looks to his left side and sees Guilmon and Terriermon as usual, and then looks to his right and finds himself gawking in horror as to who he sees beside him.

Standing before him, her arms folded across as the two fused heads make her species clear, is an Omegamon of a fairly familiar gaze with her eyes facing down at Devimon.

"We have much to discuss, Beelzebumon." Raiga says.

"IT'S BEELZEMON, DAMN IT!"


	10. Chapter 9: Fragility

**Digimon Re: Tamers Chapter 9:**

* * *

Terriermon and Guilmon are speechless, all the while Takato and Jeri finally begin to make their way out of the former's household just as Devimon is too busy gawking upwards to face the towering form of Raiga. Without further warning, Jeri spots Raiga and drags Takato by the hand to their Digimon so they can check out what's going on.

"Having fun here, Beelzebumon?" Raiga asks, as Jeri walks up to Raiga and scans her with her digivice as Takato's face flushes red at Jeri holding his hand.

"Omnimon, Mega Level Royal Knight. Odd, I could've sworn it's an Ultra Level." Jeri says, as Takato's eyes widen as he looks at her.

"Um, Jeri, about that…" Takato tries to say, as Raiga glances down at the two 16 year old humans.

"I'm suppressing my power; the reason I don't register as Super Ultimate is because I don't have my power raised any further than Ultimate right now." Raiga says, as Jeri cocks her head to the side in confusion as to Raiga's choice of wording. An awkward pause happens, as Devimon moves to clear his throat.

"She means she's referring to her power not being at Ultra because she's suppressing her power to be no higher than Mega Level." Devimon explains for Jeri in plain English.

"Oooh." Jeri murmurs, as Takato blinks.

"Jeri, I could've sworn you would've known about the Japanese servers of Digimon at this point. Aren't you from Japan like the rest of us?" Takato asks, as Jeri blinks, as she giggles a bit as she looks at Takato all cheerfully with excited eyes and a bright smile.

"Is that about what happened a few months ago before we moved here?" Jeri asks, as Takato sweats a little at Jeri's choice of expression. Is she just choosing right now to try and flirt with him?

"Please don't look at me like that." Takato tells Jeri, as Raiga, Devimon, Guilmon, and Terriermon all look as Jeri suddenly closes her eyes, before reopening them with a low, lustful gaze in her eyes as her smile becomes smaller but slier in nature.

"Then how about like this?" Jeri asks in a rather seductive tone, as Takato's face turns beat red as Terriermon snickers a little as Devimon moves to cover his face with his hand.

"Jeri, I think you're scaring the poor kid. He's being serious right now, or, at least trying to be, regarding how all of you guys for the most part originally lived in Japan." Devimon says, as he looks at Raiga as Raiga's towering form overlooks everything in range save for the buildings.

"By the way, how goes purging Japan of the infection?" Devimon asks, as he degenerates down to Impmon as to save up on his own energy, seeing as how everything is peaceful right now.

"Duftmon and LordKnightmon are both investigating the situation right now, to check is the Hydra is active or not; Alphamon, meanwhile, had sent me here to check on you and everyone else under Grandis' command. It would appear that some of your tamers and even Grandis himself have been acting out of hormonal urges as of late." Raiga tells Impmon, as Impmon groans a bit.

"Which reminds me, Jeri? Do you think we should head home for the time being? I think you're beginning to overwhelm Takato right now." Impmon asks, as he moves to tug on Jeri's arm, "This whole mushy stuff going on between you and Takato right now is kind of giving me a headache, anyways." Impmon tells Jeri, as Jeri looks down at Impmon and nods.

"I guess we should head home; dad will probably be home today anyways, so he wouldn't like to see me out of the house without explanation." Jeri says to Impmon, as Raiga looks away from Jeri as Takato quickly notices the rather cold expression Raiga has on.

' _What's her problem?'_  Takato thinks to himself regarding the way Raiga is behaving around Jeri and Impmon, although Takato does sigh in relief as Jeri and Impmon make their leave. Raiga, though, clears her throat as she looks over down towards Takato.

"Now then, since the runt is out of the way, how's about explaining to me something about the anomaly over there?" Raiga asks Takato, pointing her Greymon-shaped arm over towards Guilmon.

"Anomaly? You mean Guilmon, right?"

"I know what I said, Takato; it's not a Digimon I'm familiar with at all, considering one day this Digimon doesn't exist at all, and then you suddenly draw it to life and a DigiCore ends up choosing to create your own Digimon into reality." Raiga says to Takato; Raiga stepping forward with loud footsteps as Takato backs away, as Guilmon's eyes turn into feral slits.

"Raiga, back off!" Guilmon tells Raiga with a snarl, as Raiga unsheathes the Garuru Cannon from her right arm, as Guilmon's eyes revert to normal as Terriermon hides behind Takato whimpering.

"Takato; explain to me everything. Where did Guilmon… begin, for lack of a better term?" Raiga asks of Takato, as Takato sighs as he ends up moving to sit on the ground beside Guilmon; briefly petting Guilmon's shoulder to get him to calm down.

"So you want to know the full story, as farfetched as it may seem?"

* * *

_The sound of an airliner engine can be faintly heard in the passenger room of an otherwise near soundproof room in which Takato had been lazily resting, with his parents right next to him, all cuddled up and asleep at this early hour of the morning._

_Takato draws on his notebook paper he has in his lap as the early hours of the morning pass by due to the jet lag; it appears to be night over where he and his family are flying now, but it's only the early morning hours according to Takato's state of fatigue._

" _And as for what I'll impress Jeri with, I'll draw my Digimon as I see fit; able to outclass Agumon in virtually every way, having the power to evolve into even more powerful forms at first just larger and stronger, and then acquiring the rare Chrome Digizoid metal as Perfect Level. As for its final, Ultimate Level form…" Takato ends up speaking to himself, as the sound of an incredibly faint, pained roar can be heard in the incredible distance behind him._

_The night sky ignites into a bright flash; the sound of an explosion fills the air, as the airliner briefly trembles at the force of the blast; only for a few seconds does it last, all the while Takato looks out the window and sees three, specially equipped Lockheed C-130 Hercules planes flying the opposite way of the airliner. Takato scowls a bit at the thought of what had just occurred, as Takato draws on a new piece of paper the final form of his Digimon._

" _Dukemon; Royal Knight, covered head to toe in Chrome Digizoid armor, with the legendary weapons Gram and Aegis in which it shall befall the Legendary Light Dragon Digimon with, and as for the other forms…" Takato says, as he hears the intercom speak up._

" _Attention; we will be arriving in the United States air spaces soon; please prepare to depart within the next 3 hours until landing. Thank you in advance for attending this flight."_

"…  _Actually, I shall call Dukemon as Gallantmon for when we arrive in the US; yes, that sounds right. And instead of Growmon or MegaloGrowlmon, I'll call those forms Growlmon and WarGrowlmon. Takato you have certainly outdone yourself with this one in more ways than-"_

_Takato should've stopped while he was ahead, as the virtual pet keychain to Takato's side has its alarm go off like no tomorrow, before suddenly it begins to shine with a bright intensity as it restructures itself into a new model altogether. Scanning the images Takato has drawn of his Digimon's various forms, all the while from the beginning to the final, strongest forms, it quickly materializes a medium sized, white and red DigiEgg in front of Takato._

_Takato's eyes widen as the egg rests in his lap, as Takato looks at the DigiEgg and realizes quickly he will have a lot of explaining to do to his parents; he knows he's in no place to hide it at a moment like this, so is discovery will be inevitable no matter what he does; Takato looks around and sees a security camera pointed in his direction. He could tell right from the way it remains motionless with its flashing red light, that the camera had already caught everything that had just happened._

_Takato would have a lot of preparation to do over the next few months, for this was merely the beginning of everything._

* * *

"So you literally drew a self-insert of a Royal Knight into our ranks, and now because of that, your Guilmon is destined to become the Royal Knight Dukemon, yes?" Raiga questions, as Takato nods.

"Yes, but now I just refer to the form as Gallantmon."

"Dukemon."

"Gallantmon."

' _Not dignifying that.'_  Raiga thinks to herself, "Look, regardless of your intent in mind for Guilmon, you had the audacity to make Guilmon into one of the strongest Virus Digimon known to exist. I hope you are more than willing to understand how much responsibility you have now, Takato." Raiga says, as she moves to stop off, as she holds her left arm outwards.

"Terriermon, hop on; I'm taking you back to base." Raiga commands, as Terriermon flinches, as Takato and Guilmon blink in confusion.

"Wait, that's it? That's all you need to know?" Takato asks Raiga, as Raiga doesn't answer him, all the while Terriermon hops onto Raiga's arm and clasps onto it, as Raiga jumps into the air and flies off, before Takato could remotely get an answer as to Raiga's further questioning.

"Come on, Takato; you can worry about her later, right now we need to get back to your studies and workout regime." Guilmon says, as he moves to walk back into Takato's household, as Takato gets up as he looks into the air where Raiga had flown off to. Letting out a sigh, Takato moves to follow Guilmon back inside.

* * *

Ryo remains restless as he looks over his studies; so many homework and tests, late to be turned in, because Ryo prioritized Ruki's wellbeing over his own academic wellbeing, especially since Cyberdramon doesn't make for a "peaceful" partner Digimon.

Well, that is, aside from the overtly curious, smaller dragon Digimon form he has for his Rookie Level form; now small and purple with small yellow markings across his body, and his arms similar to wyvern wings, and a conical head shape and beak, is a Digimon known as Monodramon walking around Ryo's household; sniffing everything he can reach.

"Ugh… I kind of wish I had the academic immunity that Henry has. At least he can study and keep his job up just fine." Ryo says, as he tries to focus on the various math homework he has before him, before hearing his phone ring on the side and picks it up to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hello? Ryo, it's Ruki; I've got something I need you to research from that book Big G had given you." Ruki says to Ryo, as Ryo looks bemused.

"What exactly happened? Something very serious I take it?" Ryo asks, as Ruki nods on her end.

"Yes, very; a creature covered head to toe in pure shadow composed of ash, sludge, and blood had manifested a while ago just outside of Takato's household. Considering Big G had arrived on the scene at the last moment to deal with it after we presumed Trinity Burst had already slain it, I was hoping you'd look into what exactly was that thing that tried attacking us." Ruki asks, as Ryo notices something about her voice; she sounds like her voice is cracking up as if she's trying to hide something.

Ryo would normally not address such an elephant in the room knowing that Ruki prefers to have her space, but the moment Ryo hears Ruki slowly begin to let out small, silent cries catches his attention immediately. "Ruki, is something wrong?" Ryo asks, as Ruki gasps quietly as she realizes Ryo heard her about to break out crying.

"R-Ryo, please don't let the others know, but I felt my life flash before my eyes just before Big G intervened; I'm not sure what the shadow entity was about to do, but it was dangerously close to me when we had still thought it was dead before Big G showed that wasn't the case." Ruki says to Ryo, as Ryo moves to shuffle through his bookshelf in a hurry as he reaches for a book with a strange, "-|-" shaped insignia on the cover, as Ryo moves to open it and turn the pages until he finds whatever remotely matches Ruki's description of the creature.

"Ruki, would you like me to come pick you up?" Ryo asks, as he stumbles across a page detailing a pitch black, skeletal humanoid and bat mixture of sorts made of a sludge-like material, with the text detailing what exactly it is as secondary pictures detail how it moves and shows an attack in which it hides in the shadows and quickly and abruptly appears behind someone and impales them fatally.

Ryo's eyes widen as he lets the realization sink in that Darigus had actively attempted to kill Ruki at the last moment.

"R-Ryo…? Your breathing is becoming heavy, are you okay?" Ruki asks over the phone, as Ryo looks back at his phone and sighs.

"Ruki, I can pick you up and bring you over here if you'd want me to; if that's what you want, or if you want to go somewhere else I can take you there." Ryo offers Ruki, as Ruki sniffles a little bit, wiping the tears away on her end.

"I know this is uncharacteristic of me to seek you out in such an incident, but right now I'm trembling after the realization hit me that-"

"Darigus tried to kill you outright, correct?"

"I need you. Now."

Ryo didn't waste time with grabbing his Digivice and whistling for Monodramon to follow him outside, as Monodramon glows with an immense light as Ryo quickly puts on a biker helmet and attaches a sidecar to a medium sized motorcycle in his garage just outside of the side of his house.

"Monodramon, Warp Digivolve to…!" Monodramon calls, as his DigiCore exposes itself as two pairs of eyes and differently shaped heads manifest and let out an immense roar; the air around Monodramon detonates in an immense explosion, as Monodramon is reshaped into a four armed, two legged monstrosity with a rhinoceros beetle helmeted saurian, with the aura of another Digimon overtop of itself with twin, gigantic cannons armed and ready, but turning around backwards to form into propulsion systems.

" _ **Millenniummon!"**_  Millenniummon calls, as he lets out a harsh, fierce roar as the motorbike Ryo hops onto has its engines roar as Ryo quickly steps on the gas, and drives out of his garage, as Millennium fires energy from the cannons on his back to cause him to take off into the air at an immense, albeit somewhat slow speed.

"Millenniummon; I need Ruki's coordinates! I have a bad feeling about this from the tone of her voice that-"

" _ **That she's not even telling you the full story to protect her wounded pride?"**_  Millenniummon says, as Ryo nods as he drives along the streets in town.

"Right; and if I'm also going to be a betting boy here, than-"

Ryo's transport is interrupted when shots can be heard firing themselves towards his direction; an immense, powerful roar echoes across the entire skyline as Millenniummon looks upward with his eyes widening in panic.

"Millenniummon cover me!" Ryo orders, as he sees as the sky above begins to rain down fiery spheres of meteor-like fragments as entire areas of the town nearby are suddenly struck with explosive, fiery craters forming in the aftermath of the impacts; citizens can be seen running away from the fire falling from the sky, as Millenniummon lands on a tall building and repositions its cannons to face the front of itself as it takes aim at the skies.

The shape of a downy feathered, bronze colored serpent briefly manifests from the small portions of its spine in the sky, as a fiery hiss echoes across the area as Millenniummon takes aim.

" _ **Ultimate Fusion!"**_  Millenniummon calls as he outstretches all six of his arms to manifest as illusions to clutch around the massive sized serpent appearing in the sky; as the various hands attempt to close around the Digimon with a force that bends space and time to its whim, the serpent suddenly begins to ignite into a burning gold as an explosive force is heard all across the skyline as Millenniummon is targeted by the head of the serpent appearing; three, golden eyes pointing his direction as it lets out a fiery blast at Millenniummon.

 _ **"TWILIGHT BLAZE!"**_  The mysterious Digimon calls out, as it fires the immense, asteroid-like sphere into Millenniummon as it explodes upon impact with Millenniummon; the blast being too powerful to maintain his Mega Level form, Millenniummon degenerates into Monodramon as he's rendered too weak to help Ryo out.

As Ryo finally arrives to Ruki's position, he drives through a park and eventually finds Ruki laying underneath a tree; huddled up in a fetal position as her entire figure is trembling, and her digivice and a few other materials of her own laying by her side. Ryo parks his motorcycle to confront the troubled Ruki, as Ryo slowly approaches Ruki with concern for her wellbeing. "Ruki? Are you hurt?"

"It's all my fault… I allowed him near me; I allowed him to influence me like that!" Ruki says, as Ryo shakes his head as he looks at her.

"Look, Ruki, if this has anything to do with that mysterious man your mother is dating, then I will personally confront him myself and punch him out and-"

"That's not the problem, Ryo; I could easily do that myself!" Ruki states as she moves to sit up; her eyes panicked as her breathing is quick, as Ruki looks at her defiantly.

"Then why don't you?" Ryo questions, as Ruki tosses him one of the items laying at her side; her phone, and on it a photograph only just recently sent today within the last few minutes. Ryo has a look at what is shown as his blood begins to boil in frustration.

On the photo is Ruki's mother tied on, gagged, and unconscious, put into some kind of skimpy dress, as the caption says an ultimatum for Ruki in particular.

"Either use the Bronze Card as I had given you, Ruki, or your mother's pleasure and your grandmother's safety will be the least those two will have to worry about from me."

"That sleaze ball-" Ruki tries to say, as Ryo places a finger on her lips to keep her quiet.

"He's holding your mother and grandmother hostage as to get you do what he wants." Ryo says, as he looks at the sky as everything begins to go back to normal after the fiery storm had ceased and an echoing, weakened draconic cry is heard slowly fading away from the real world. That was the least of their worries now, though.

Everything begins to feel hot; very, very hot.

"We need to find the others; let them know what's going on so we can plan our assault against this slime ball once and for all!" Ruki says to Ryo, as Ryo is stunned when Ruki suddenly pulls him close to her and hugs him; her figure trembling as she clings to him, as Ryo slowly but certainly hugs her back, all the while dialing his phone to contact Henry.

"Henry; gather everyone and arrange for an urgent meeting, pronto; someone has been evading justice for far, far too long at this point."


	11. Chapter 10: Macbeth

"YOU'RE HERE TO DO WHAT?!"

Henry is outraged; none of the tamers or Digimon gathered in the VIP halls underneath the school are happy; they're in complete uproar of jeering as Raiga at the entrance with her Greymon and Garurumon arms folded up against each other.

"Taking down Rumiko's boyfriend. Nothing more, nothing less." Raiga says in an indifferent, cold voice.

"LIES! We all know you, executioner! You're planning on giving him a sentence to death without even seeing if he's even as guilty as you make him out to be!" GeoGreymon roars into Raiga's face, as Gururumon shoves GeoGreymon out of the way to lean up and snarl directly into the Royal Knight's face.

"I'm actually rather thankful my next forms are demon over your madness any day." Gururumon says, as Raiga doesn't even flinch or budge. A quick, giant sphere of fire sends Gururumon flying against the wall, as Meramon angrily walks into view.

"Quiet! Everyone! I will not have disorder in this room so long as Henry and Terriermon grace our everyday presences!" Meramon says, as all of the Digimon suddenly look at each other and all suddenly begin to glow.

"BLAST DIGIVOLVE INTO…!"

"Devitamamon!"

"Belphemon Rage Mode!"

"VictoryGreymon!"

"BlackWarGreymon!"

Henry, Terriermon, and Raiga are needless to say stunned with everyone's decision to suddenly enter their final forms.

"… Loophole abuse, much?" Raiga asks.

"That's my line, but since the boys all seem to agree! Meramon, Warp Digivolve to…! Gankoomon!" Gankoomon calls his own decision to enter his own final form.

"Let's torch the witch and have her burn for disrupting the peace here!" Devitamamon speaks out with a loud hiss.

"Victory shall be all the more sweater knowing a Royal Knight will fall before us." VictoryGreymon says, as Belphemon suddenly groans in disgust.

"Your meaningless puns only feed my own rage!" Belphemon says.

"Glass house you have there, much?" BlackWarGreymon snarks as he simply leans back and enjoys the discourse ensuing.

"Well either way do you imagine Gankoomon doing anything for us? He may have Gankoomon's form, but he's not a Royal Knight just because of that alone." Belphemon brings up, as Gankoomon nods.

"True, I did take this form because I prefer this one over the whole 'Frankenstein's Monster' type of look I'd have otherwise, but let's face it; I'm the only one here not partnered with a human who has some kind of authority over us all anyways." Gankoomon says to which Belphemon snarls.

"Sounds like the Demon Lord wannabe doesn't agree." BlackWarGreymon brings up, as VictoryGreymon raises an eye at him.

"What do you plan to win from all of this, BlackWarGreymon?" VictoryGreymon asks, to which BlackWarGreymon chuckles.

"To enjoy the show, that's what."

Raiga, even when faced with all of these Digimon in their final most forms, still doesn't even budge; it was impressive they all managed to do so at once, but nothing more; the startled gaze had long since faded away, and only a hostile glare does Raiga return. The door to the VIP club from upstairs opens up, as everyone turns dead silent as to here who is walking down the steps.

Henry's eyes widen as the figure shows themselves clear as day walking down into the VIP lounge. Raiga still doesn't move or even emote, all the while a man, seemingly having bluish hair of a striking resemblance to Henry's, limps down the stairs as Henry moves to grab him when he starts to collapse to the ground; grunting audibly in immense pain as he pants heavily.

"Jiang-yu? What happened? Who even let you in?!" Henry questions, as Raiga simply gives a slow glance over to Henry, before looking the opposite way; Henry catches notice of this at the corner of his eye. "… Raiga?"

"A bright flash; a bright pillar of light?!" The man, named Jiang-yu, was uttering without any rhyme or normality with his tone; he goes on for a while, mentioning other things such as "faceless", "shining", "blinding" as if attempting to describe something, but Henry tries to get him to quiet down as Henry moves to lay him on a nearby chair so he can sit down. Jiang-yu, his hand moving to point towards Raiga as it shakes and trembles simply having to move yet alone point, has his eyes inconsistently widen and focus in on something that may or may not even be there.

"… Jiang-yu?" Henry asks, quietly, before thinking of how to respond to the man's constant shaking, before sighing a bit as he closes his eyes for a brief moment to collect his thoughts, before opening them and looking back at the shivering man before him. "Dad?"

Henry speaks to Jiang-yu in a word that only very slowly causes Raiga to glance over her shoulder and watch the duo; Raiga's eyes focus on Henry alone, taking everything in as she watches Henry's expression having a tiny trace of hidden frustration, but at the same time, the surface only could really show concern and worry, no matter how angry Henry might've been.

Jiang-yu looks over his shoulder to look at Henry, as his eyes widen a little all the while his overall form still trembles. "Jianliang?" Jiang-yu asks, as Henry flinches as he pauses, before shaking his head no to Jiang-yu.

"I don't know who you're referring to, but my name is Henry." Henry tells Jiang-yu, as the various Mega Level Digimon in the room all exchange quick glances; they hadn't seen this from Henry before now, as they all look over towards Raiga, who is giving Henry an intense scowl of disapproval from behind his field of view.

Before either Henry or Raiga can address the situation at hand with Jiang-yu, the alarm goes off as the Mega Radar picks up something materializing into the real world, and begins to showcase it on screen. Henry sets Jiang-yu against the wall in a resting position, as he goes to check on the radar's report.

"Status update, RustTyrannomon?" Henry asks, as RustTyrannomon reports in with a visual of the materializing wild Digimon; a train-like Digimon with claws forming parts of the cylinders at the front, and having small eyes showing through the very front of the train. Trailing behind it were different cars of varying types, ranging from storage cars, coal cars, a weapons platform with a towering sentry unit, the caboose, and an unidentifiable car just behind the locomotive proper.

"Target identified as Locomon; Ultimate Level, and appears to have some kind of barrier preventing Mega Level Digimon from entering its vicinity without being forcefully shoved aside." RustTyrannomon reports, as Raiga observes the whole situation with interest.

"Well it figures the Metal Empire Coalition would try and flee into the real world." Raiga says after stomping her foot down in frustration, before turning her gaze to Henry as Henry looks back at her with a raised eye.

"You know these troublemakers?" Henry asks, as Raiga nods slowly.

"Send one of your lower ranked units to dispatch Locomon. Locomon will not be a tough fight, as it's more the engineer you'd need to worry about than it. Send Takato and Growmon to distract the engineer's path by having Growmon block Locomon's path as quick as possible, meanwhile…" Raiga begins to give orders, as Henry immediately gets to dialing Takato and Guilmon.

"Send in Jeri and Impmon while Locomon and the engineer are occupied to board the train; Impmon's Unknown Field will give him stealth on board unless he decides to evolve further on board. Remember, however; do not go above Perfect Level!" Raiga says, as Henry finishes his call with Takato and begins dialing Jeri, as BlackWarGreymon looks over at Raiga and raises an eye at her.

"Ya know we could send ole' Ryo to the guy packing heat with Millenniummon and just dispatch of Locomon and the engineer with his phenomenal cosmic power, yes?" BlackWarGreymon suggests to Raiga.

"Unfortunately for you; I've already given him that order thrice and each time he failed to stop the Metal Empire Coalition in their tracks." Raiga says, as she unsheathes the Grey Sword on her left arm and uses the touch screen on the display to zoom in and magnify on the unidentified car just directly behind Locomon itself.

"Ryo and Millenniumon reported to me each time that something contained within this car is blocking even them from being able to go at it with brute force; it's a weapon of some kind, but we have yet to identify what it is. The only evidence we have are video footage too heavily blinded in light to show anything and-"

"E-Excuse me… did you say… blinded? Blinded as in something so shining and radiant, blinding by mere nature, as in what attacked me at work at work at work at work work work work…" Jiang-yu begins to try and say, only to break down trembling and curling into a fetal position, all the while beginning to sob in a horrified manner as Henry looks over at Jiang-yu for a brief moment, before looking back at the screen; this time he catches Raiga's glare and gives her an aside glance.

"And what do you suppose you're looking at?" Henry inquires to the Royal Knight, as Raiga simply folds her arms together as she just continues to glare directly into Henry's eyes. Henry continues to glare back, seemingly lasting a solid minute of glaring back and forth between himself and the Omnimon before Henry can no longer ignore the sobbing of Jiang-yu off to the side, as his glare weakens; his expression softening only enough as he moves to approach his dad and kneel down, patting him on the back to try and calm him down.

"… That's what I thought." Raiga murmurs, as she looks back at the screen with Locomon's path entering a local set of rail tracks. Takato's digivice can be seen on the radar, approaching from the front, as Jeri's digivice can be seen approaching from the side, but at the same time, incredibly far from the Locomon proper and the engineer.

"How far does that train go?" Gankoomon asks, as Raiga gives him a bemused glance, before letting out a low chuckle.

"One could say it goes on forever."

* * *

"Guilmon, Digivolve To…!" Guilmon calls, as an egg-like sphere wraps around him out of an immense surge of energy, as he bursts out of it as the 0s and 1s forming the inner layers of his body shatter the skin around him and begin to reform itself into a much bigger form, in the form of the Champion Level Growlmon.

"Growlmon!" Growlmon announces as he lands on the rails just a solid half a mile before Locomon is due to pass where he's positioning himself right now. Takato stands off to the side, away from the tracks as much as possible, knowing full well what to expect from an Ultimate Level like Locomon.

A loud, blaring train whistle can be heard, as the shifting of Locomon's wheels can be heard as Locomon is rapidly approaching the area, and not appearing to give any sign of stopping at the sight of Growlmon in the tracks ahead.

"Oi! Engineer! We've got us an Adult Level ahead!"

"Soh?! Ruhn 'im ovah!"

"Roger roger, boss monkey!" Locomon yells as it blows its whistle even louder, as its engines crank up the speed as Growlmon is swiftly incoming in distance in just a mere few moments; Growlmon opens its arms outwards, ready to grab Locomon upon the distance between the two closing completely.

"Jeri I hope you and Impmon can get aboard, and fast!" Takato says into his digivice, as Locomon collides into Growlmon at full speed; Growlmon's sheer strength gives him enough of a push to stop Locomon, but not from moving entirely. Suddenly, Growlmon's eyes turn feral and savage, as Growlmon lets out a vicious roar as the Digital Hazard on his shoulders suddenly shine red; with his own strength increasing tenfold as each second passes, Growlmon effectively anchors himself and Locomon from being able to move any further until Locomon inevitably overpowers Growlmon.

"Stehp ohn the gahss! Nohw!" The engineer's voice commands Locomon from within, as meanwhile, much further behind the massive train and cars are Jeri and Impmon running towards the first storage car they see. Impmon rushes forward with his hands glowing immensely as a circle paints itself onto the side of the car.

"Summon!" Impmon calls as blasts of fire and ice escape his hands and pierce through the car's side, creating a hole for him and Jeri to enter through. Jeri gets on board, and quickly helps Impmon inside as well; the rusted car wall heals itself almost immediately, as it seals the two inside.

"Dahm! Dehploi the Sehntree Cahnnohns!" The engineer commands, as the nearest sentry tower car to the Locomon in front activate their automated defense systems on cue, and take aim on Growlmon in the front. Growlmon savagely snarls at the engineer inside, before suddenly exhaling a massive stream of violet fire that causes Locomon's engines to malfunction from the sheer heat of the blast; giving Growlmon just enough time to get off of the track and shield Takato from the sentry tower's cannon blasts.

"Cohcky lil' freaks! Lohcohmohn! Ahll systehms! FUHLL POWAH!" The engineer shouts over the intercom to Locomon, as Locomon's engines repair themselves as Locomon's whistle blows and lets loose massive plumes of smoke atop of itself, before Locomon is back to moving on the rails towards its yet unknown destination. Takato and the degenerated Growlmon turned Guilmon take their breaths as they look on as to Locomon making its way back on track.

"What gives with that accent of his?" Takato asks, rather bemused over the engineer's outlandish accent as Guilmon growls a bit.

"Whatever he speaks drove me nuts as Champion; that accent annoyed my DigiCore to the point the Digital Hazard within me strengthened me to get us as far as we did." Guilmon tells Takato, as Takato nods, before stopping himself before he spoke again to contact Jeri.

"Jeri? Are you on board?"

"Yes, Takato, and I don't think Impmon and I are getting out of this easily." Jeri tells Takato, as she whispers in her tone as she looks out from behind a box of cargo, as she looks around and scans a few of the Digimon on board to scan them for their information.

"Kenkimon, Armor Level. Machine Type Digimon." Jeri scans a rather bulking Digimon resembling a construction vehicle with a small, cylinder head with a reinforced helmet and asymmetrical limbs.

"Reptiledramon, Champion Level. Cyborg Type Digimon." Jeri scans another henchmen for the engineer, taking the form of a dinosaur with a metallic helmet of razor sharp blades, and an entire torso body with mechanical arms and gigantic blades to form into wings, with some metal reinforcement in the legs and tail as well.

"Jeri, I hate to interrupt, but this isn't exactly a scouting trip here, especially-" Impmon whispers to Jeri, before he catches something from the corner of his eye, as he turns behind him to face something that is levitating in the air. Some kind of ball of light, but within it seemed to contain something that vaguely resembled the shape of a card.

"Hey, Raptordramon! Don't leave the Ultra Card laying out in the open like that!" Kenkimon says, as Reptiledramon snarls.

"Oh really, varmint?! You expect me, let anyone else, to contain a card of such legendary power that those who tap into its power are said to be cursed until their deletion?!" Reptiledramon shouts towards Kenkimon.

"Not my fault the boss couldn't find a vault for it to keep it safely contained! Just keep a hold of it until we can find what to do with it for now, I'm going to reload the sentry car up ahead." Kenkimon tells Reptiledramon, as Kenkimon drives off on its treaded feet into the car up ahead, as Jeri and Impmon look at each other.

"Legendary power... I think that's what we need at a time like this!" Impmon says to Jeri, as Jeri gives him a concerned look.

"I don't know, Impmon; we never got any orders about what to do with the cargo outside of the secret weapon in the back of Locomon directly…" Jeri says out of concern, before realizing the situation proper has her severely outmatched by Champion Level Digimon, and probably Ultimate Level Digimon elsewhere in the train.

"… Alright; grab it, use Summon as we make a beeline for it towards the very front of the train." Jeri tells Impmon, as Impmon jumps up and grabs hold of the glowing card, as Impmon's entire body is suddenly electrocuted by the card's mere presence; Impmon shakes and shivers as the Ultra Card begins to make a pulsating sound of sorts, but that only alerts Reptiledramon to the situation as he card tucks itself into Impmon's scarf.

Before Impmon's eyes open wide in a blinding white light as Impmon summons up a seal around Reptiledramon, before numerous hands grasp hold of the dinosaurian Digimon and forcefully drag it away into an unknown location with their numerous, Devimon-esque hands.

"Woah…" Jeri says, as Impmon floats down to her and nods.

"We don't have much time, hurry to the next car!"

* * *

"Takato! What did I miss?" Ruki yells into her Digivice as she rides on Kyubimon's back, with Ryo right beside her riding atop the much larger, seemingly eyeless saurian Digimon, but it isn't Cyberdramon.

"Strikedramon, easy on the haste! We've just been given a massive detour to scout the train so that we can find out some information!" Ryo tells Strikedramon, but Strikedramon snarls.

"Information on what? That nobody who keeps feeling up Ruki's mom?! Ya know we should've just pulverized him point blank when we had the chance!"

"That's the thing Strikedramon! We never had the chance to begin with!" Ryo yells, as Ruki growls.

"Either way, somebody is going to pay information or so help me Kyubimon and I are going to be going right up to those cars and-"

The entire area shakes and trembles as the cargo car that Jeri and Impmon were last known entering as far as the others knew, completely shatters apart as it explodes into itty bitty pieces with the cargo completely vaporized, along with whatever else was inside.

Within a short succession of each other, the following cars begin to explode and detached from the train proper, as Ryo and Ruki are looking onwards with eyes widening as to what's happening on the train.

"Henry?! Come in, Henry?!" Ryo yells over his digivice, as Ruki likewise tries to contact Henry. "Are you seeing his Henry?!"

"Yes, I'm seeing it; the train cars are being detonated from the inside by our new recruit." Henry tells the two of them, as Ruki's eyes widen at the thought.

"New recruit… as in, Jeri?! Since when did she become a badass to pull off stuff like that?!" Ruki commends Henry in shock and surprise, reeling in the thoughts of her best friend taking out the train cars so effortlessly; that is, until, the thought occurs to here, and her expression dampens.

"Henry, how is she getting off of the train?"

* * *

By the time Jeri and Impmon reach the last car before the Locomon itself, they enter the car's room and notice everything is… eerily quiet. The engineer more or less has to know by now that Jeri and Impmon are here, as Impmon looks around the area to see what could be powering the energy field this Locomon has attached to it.

"Jeri? Don't you feel off about this car?" Impmon asks, as Jeri looks around, seeing if she can scan anything with her digivice.

"I'm scanning right now, seeing if any Digimon signatures come up." Jeri says, as she scans around the area, into the doors where the Locomon's conductor's room is, as Jeri scans around as her Digivice's light pierces through the dark, dank area of the final car before her, before stopping around the middle of the room, which slowly shines onto something that neither Jeri nor Impmon can see very well.

"Jeri? What is that thing up ahead? It's too dark to see it…" Impmon asks, as Jeri looks at her digivice to see what it is.

"'Otherworld Entity'. From the sounds of it, I don't know what it could be. Do you think a Non-Digimon entity maybe?" Jeri asks, to which Impmon shakes his head.

"I'm not entirely sure; something doesn't feel right about it at all."

"Thaht's becauhse you neehd to learhn a lessohn fohr dahmahging my train!" The engineer's voice suddenly speaks up, as the front door to the conductor's room opens out, and out walks a tall, giant, beefy primate with sunglasses and solid chrome Digizoid skin, as well as Japanese kanji on its chest in red.

"MetalEtemon, Cyborg Type Digimon. Me- M-Mega L-Level?!" Jeri says as she gasps in horror; even with what she and Impmon were doing before with the previous cars in the train, she had only confronted Adult or Armor Level Digimon which didn't pose any much of a threat, but MetalEtemon is an entirely different beast due to not only being above Champion Level, but being a Mega Level at that. MetalEtemon simply chuckles with his weird accent as a response to Jeri's surprise.

"Mahybeh you should've thought this throuhght! Mahybeh you should've stahyed in behd, nehveh wahking uhp tohdayh!" MetalEtemon says, as Impmon growls a bit.

"Ya know what! Not even a full minute and I'm already sick and tired of that accent! Impmon, Digivolve To…! Devimon!" Impmon calls as he digivolves right into his Champion Level form. MetalEtemon simply scoffs in boredom.

"Yahwn. Anything elhse?" MetalEtemon asks, as Devimon smirks.

"As a matter of fact, as long as I hold this Ultra Card before me, there is! Devimon, Digivolve To…!" Devimon calls as he becomes encased in an egg-like sphere, his entire body stretching as his wings become a blood soaked red, his arms stretching out and gaining muscle and growing massive claws, his legs gaining more pants-like qualities as his boots gained spiked tips to them, as Devimon's face becomes encased in a solid gold, six eyed mask as a silver mane sprouts from the back of his head.

"NeoDevimon!" NeoDevimon calls in a more synthetic rendition of his voice as Devimon; however, before NeoDevimon could think of using an ordinary attack, the Ultra Card around his neck begins letting out a siren-like noise, as NeoDevimon chuckles as he plucks it off and launches it at MetalEtemon.

"Lohcohmohn! HIT THE BREAKS!"

The explosion in the cabin completely destabilizes the entire engine on Locomon; Locomon also seems to appear to digivolve into an armored, spike covered form with a beak-like head and a giant spiked wheel in the middle of its arms in the track, but the newfound form shreds apart the rails to the point Locomon's pre-existing speed causes it to collide into a line that long since has been retired, as various boulders in the way begin colliding with Locomon's front and damaging its surface with ease, with only a small cave up ahead detailing where it'll head next.

NeoDevimon grabs Jeri and takes flight out of the back of Locomon, as MetalEtemon is in a cowering, screaming fit as to what is going on.

"I cahn't stohp it! Awahkehn the Death Black Prism and HUUURRRRRRYYY!" MetalEtemon calls out as its last words before going dead silent as Locomon drives itself into the cave, rocks falling and blocking the exit. A small, faint pulsation is heard, as the mountainside from which Locomon was forced into explodes into a massive pillar of light; completely disintegrating the debris around it as Locomon and MetalEtemon are no more.

Ryo, Ruki, and Takato, alongside their respective Digimon, head as close to the dead rails as they needed to, before NeoDevimon flies into view with Jeri in hand, before landing on the ground, setting Jeri down and degenerating into Impmon, as Ryo, Ruki, and Takato get off of the backs of their Digimon as they also degenerate to Rookie.

"Way to go Jeri!" Ruki cheers, as Ryo gives an approving nod to her, as Takato shyly blushes as he awkwardly smiles and waves at Jeri. Jeri, looking over at Impmon, smiles a bit before speaking up.

"Actually, the big hero today is Impmon, not me; but that wouldn't have happened without help first…" Jeri says, as she walks up to Takato, her hips swaying a tiny amount, but still noticeable nevertheless, as she moves to whisper something into Takato's ear, causing him to blush immensely as he jolts back a bit.

"R-Really?! H-Here?!" Takato asks, as Jeri nods, leaving Ryo and Ruki completely bemused as to whatever Jeri must've told Takato. Jeri stands up straight; closing her eyes, as Takato regains his composure, gulping in nervousness, as he moves to slowly grab Jeri's upper arms, as Ryo and Ruki's eyes grow progressively wider and wider, with Ruki covering her mouth to hide a gasp.

Takato kisses Jeri right on the lips; Jeri kissing back all the more happily, as Ryo and Ruki are mentally cheering on Takato for his act of bravery towards being courted by his own crush and vice versa.


	12. Chapter 11: Sleep Mode

While everyone else was sleeping that night, needless to say a certain bluish haired man didn't exactly choose to sleep this night; Henry is wide awake in the VIP club's secret room from which Big G had purified Taomon in, as Henry begins looking at different pieces of paper he had pulled out and connected together.

The first of which was a stylized question mark drawn in the shape of some kind of otter-like creature with razor sharp, deep sea fish-esque teeth, and several normal question marks surrounding itself as well. Henry holds a pencil in his hand, all the while he draws a line extending outward from the central entity.

"So here we have Enigma itself, or what we've been able to identify as it…" Henry murmurs to himself, as Henry begins to draw a picture of a shadowy, blob-like entity which has exposed ribs as wings, and blank red eyes and long, lanky arms with three digit hands. As Henry colors in the drawing, Henry labels this drawing as "Darigus".

Going back to Enigma's picture, he draws a line outwards and begins drawing a serpentine figure with a fiery aura around itself, with its body contained within various pots from which its head, tail, and limbs emerge from. Henry slowly labels this drawing as "Brondramon".

Moving to pick up a book beside him towards his right, he picks it up and opens it to examine the information inside; he pulls up the page on Darigus as since this was Big G's book of information, Darigus would be here just like the books Ryo had as well. "Displays sudden hostility towards those who have in some way disturbed it or have discovered something they shouldn't know…" Henry takes note on Darigus' warning pages, as Henry moves to think for a moment; all the while he focuses on the Enigma drawing again.

"Enigma has been known to disturb Digimon in the area for a long while now; maybe perhaps Darigus misinterpreted the signal and ended up being disturbed as well?" Henry asks himself, before focusing on drawing a relatively simplistic drawing of Ruki that he connects a line from Darigus over towards the sketch of Ruki. "Unless of course Ruki discovered something she shouldn't know… Interesting."

Henry moves to sketch on the sheet of paper again as he closes the book, small traces of a black ash substance leaking from it, which briefly causes Henry to cough a little. "Despite all of his efforts to wash up earlier today, no matter how uncharacteristic it may be, Martin still can't be bothered to clean his own stuff."

Henry begins drawing a sketch from memory; a Locomon being driven by MetalEtemon, as well as rectangular object in the appearance of a card.

As Henry begins drawing the insignia he knew from memory from it, Henry could feel the breeze pick up in intensity; a chill hits the back of his neck as Henry's eyes widen a little bit, as he looks around from his desk within Big G's secret chamber and looks around carefully.

Nobody else is present; the strange statues that fill the room, mostly of very ancient Digimon or even beings from which even Henry couldn't recognize that only Big G must've been aware of what they were. The statues didn't move at all from the last time Henry gazed upon any of them; the feeling of being watched had already crossed his mind the moment he stepped inside this chamber.

"… I need to ask Martin about these statues at some point…" Henry notes in a low whisper, as he hears his digivice ring, with Henry glancing over the screen and noticing its Ryo calling him. Henry checks the time before answering.

' _8:31 PM; 10 minutes directly before its fully nighttime out, I wonder what he wants from me at this time.'_  Henry notes, as he answers his digivice and pulls up a holographic screen of Ryo, with Ruki resting on a couch behind Ryo; Ryo clearly sitting down in front of a light source aside from his digivice.

"Henry? By any chance could you gather Jeri and Takato for a meeting at my place? I'm planning on bringing down Rumiko's boyfriend after all of this time considering what he forced Ruki to do."

"Lemme guess… she's the cause of the appearance of Brondramon in the sky? Why am I not surprised…" Henry asks, as Ryo's eyes widen a bit.

"… Pardon?"

"Ryo you are aware at one point in winter Ruki used the Jade Card to summon a blizzard from Jadedramon just because she was pissed Jeri was being too overworked at school and figured she needed a day off or two?" Henry reminds Ryo, as Ryo's moves to raise a hand to respond, before Henry notices Ryo breaking a sweat at this point.

' _Gotcha.'_  Henry thinks to himself, as he looks at Ryo with a sense of pride, "Or the time her grandfather wanted to see a solar eclipse on his final years of life and she uses the Cobalt Card to forcefully change the moon's orbit and-"

"Henry for goodness sake; at the very least Cobaldramon and Jadedramon didn't physically appear!" Ryo says in Ruki's defense, as Ryo begins sending over a visual feed of the encounter with Brondramon and Millenniummon prior in the day, as Henry's eyes widen as he notices Brondramon's physical manifestation.

"Woah... What led to Ruki using the Bronze Card in the first place if she should've known the risk was so high at this time?" Henry asks, as Ryo looks over towards Ruki; noticing a few strands of hair getting in her face, Ryo moves to, very carefully, brush the strands of hair off to the side.

"Rumiko's boyfriend is holding her and her mother hostage, leaving Ruki's very own home to be unsafe for Ruki to return to; hence why she's spending another night at my place." Ryo tells Henry as he looks back at his digivice. "Literally had it not been for Ruki's anxiety levels hitting through the roof when I found her, I would've directly gave chase to Rumiko's boyfriend. I had ordered Jeri to investigate since I realized NeoDevimon would've been a safe bet, but oddly enough, that turned out to be the least of my concerns. You see…"

* * *

_Jeri walked towards Ruki's house after all of this time; it was a rather simplistic house, almost a complete recreation of a more traditional Japanese household. Then again Jeri knew what to expect from this already; Rumiko was rich, and Rumiko's boyfriend is possibly after her money more than her body._

" _So do I digivolve into NeoDevimon or are we going the stealth route first?" Impmon asks Jeri, as Jeri looks at him with an uncertain look; it just hits Impmon that after Takato had ran off in a hurry to attend to something, and Ruki and Ryo are not here, nor is Henry, means that Jeri is making decisions on her own here for now, not unless Impmon gives her input._

' _Which considering the only reason I'm here is because I lucked out, that's going to be a problem.' Impmon thought to himself. Stealing that keycard would've been impossible for him otherwise had Raiga flat out faked her lose to him; he knew as Omnimon that Raiga's power would easily fluctuate and make her weaker than she actually would've been otherwise._

" _Impmon?"_

_Jeri's voice snaps Impmon out of his train of thought; he got off of the subject at hand here with storming Ruki's household in search of Rumiko's boyfriend, considering if he's anywhere at this hour of the day, based solely off of his observations with Ruki, but then the realization hit him, as he glances over at Jeri._

" _Stay close to me; I'll have to stay as Impmon for us to sneak inside unnoticed." Impmon tells Jeri, as Jeri nods, all the while Impmon moves to walk up to the side of the house, Jeri following him closely as Impmon can practically feel her breathing down his neck. Impmon ignores it as Impmon gestures for Jeri to get behind the wall away from the door as he hears somebody move to open the front door._

_**"́̕̕.͠.͜.̀͡"̴** _

_Darigus' pulsations can be heard as his slimy, sludge covered body "walks" out of the door; sludge and grime dripping from Darigus' figure, as Darigus looks around while only tilting his head and neck, never his upper body, as he looks around, causing his head to turn to face directions it should not normally be able to do so for any other person._

_Jeri covers her mouth as she feels sick listening to Darigus' dripping grime touch the ground, in addition to the sound of bones cracking as Darigus twists his head around to gaze around. Impmon's eyes widen as the red atmosphere begins to manifest around Darigus just like earlier that day; Darigus' ribcage opens up with an immense, thunderous cracking sound as his core pulsates with the sound of a heartbeat as Darigus absorbs the red atmosphere into his body._

_As his entire form sinks into the ground until nothing but sludge covered shadow is left. Even the sludge bleeds through the pavement as Darigus' shadow disappears into the ground. Impmon shudders a bit as he calms down after Darigus having left, as he looks over to get Jeri's attention; which quickly became a problem in and of itself._

_A very small, brown with a small white spot on its forehead bunny rabbit is patiently watching Jeri and anticipating her next move; Jeri's eyes are wide as she gazes upon the adorable bunny, all the while Impmon face palms from the sight of Jeri getting distracted._

" _Jeri, you can look at the rabbit later; this is serious right now!" Impmon tells Jeri, as Jeri looks back at Impmon with not even a confused or concerned glance, more in a neutral bemused gaze._

" _But nobody is home." Jeri tells Impmon, as Impmon raises an eye._

" _Nobody is home? How the heck do you know that?!"_

" _The bunny told me so." Jeri says as she moves to stand up and walk towards the front door; Impmon nearly flips and freaks out, but that's not what disturbs him the most._

_Jeri suddenly becomes a static coated figure as she flickers out of reality for a moment, as Impmon's eyes widen immensely, not even realizing the presence of someone behind him._

" _Nobody is home." Jeri tells Impmon in a completely identical tone and expression on her face as before, as Impmon jumps from where he's standing and looks back at Jeri with complete bemusement. "The bunny told me so." Jeri says after a moment as Impmon observes and witnesses Jeri repeat her actions from just a minute ago as if time was rewound for her._

" _Jeri?! How- What even happened just now?!" Impmon asks, as Impmon looks around and notices that Darigus has reappeared on the front porch of Ruki's house, but in a completely identical way to before, he sinks back into the ground; Impmon pays close attention to the drips of sludge-like material from Darigus and notices every single drop spilt hits the exact same spot they did prior as if Darigus was set to rewind for a while until he's back to beginning to leave._

_Impmon is standing in plain sight now, but Darigus just did what he did originally and leaves despite the circumstances having changed. Jeri shakes her head a bit as she notices what Impmon seems to be getting at; something abnormal just happened to both herself and Darigus, and Impmon gestures for Jeri to follow him towards the front of the house._

_As Jeri follows him, Impmon channels the D-Power from Jeri's Digivice to digivolve up into NeoDevimon, and then breaks the front door off of its hinges as NeoDevimon marches inside with all six of his eyes analyzing virtually every detail; eyes glowing like computer circuitry as data is transmitted to Jeri's Digivice as Jeri takes a look at the data she's receiving._

" _NeoDevimon I hate to break it to you, but I can't read any of what you're analyzing here; I haven't taken those kind of classes to understand what these numbers even mean." Jeri informs NeoDevimon, as NeoDevimon looks around for something._

" _Is there a connection port we can hook the digivice in to? Because to put this bluntly in plain English…"_

* * *

"'Nobody is home', is what he had told Jeri and then myself later on at that point." Henry finishes telling Ryo, as Ryo sighs.

"So you have the access codes that Jeri must've retrieved from NeoDevimon?" Ryo asks, as Ruki shifts in place on the couch behind him; Henry shakes his head yes as he pulls them up on his own digivice.

"Oh I have every possible detail we could have regarding what NeoDevimon had scanned the entire household for you; all of the possible endings towards each given route this data decodes as all points to, as NeoDevimon said, nobody is home whatsoever; no traces as to where they could've went, and also no explanation for Darigus and Jeri experiencing some kind of anomaly back there either." Henry details to Ryo, as Ryo sighs.

"So what do you suppose we do?" Ryo asks, as Henry looks at the charts he's examining in Big G's secret chamber, as Henry looks back at Ryo.

"Tell everyone to keep a very low profile unless they're specifically tasked with guard duty; keep their profiles so low and just pretend we have no idea what's going on as to whatever Rumiko's boyfriend has in store for us."

"So in other words the more we actively try and seek the information the more Rumiko's boyfriend is aware he's being chased and thus harder to catch red handed?"

"Correct."

"So then just pretending we're no longer interested or going about our daily lives, as we see with Enric and Darigus and, according to Renamon, Rumiko's boyfriend himself, the more likely we are to be able to ambush them in the act."

"Precisely." Henry says as he folds his arms together as he smiles a bit. "Trust me, all of us kind of need the break from the tension going on anyways; everyone is so busy getting worked up over all of this that it's clouding our judgment on how to best handle the situation." Henry tells Ryo, as Ryo is about to say something only to pause when he feels a hand touch his left shoulder, as he turns around and sees Ruki waking up slowly.

"Besides, I think it would be wise we play innocent civilian for a while; too much stress is going on if we continue to just hunt down our adversaries with no breaks, and then our adversaries are much more likely to ambush us just like how Henry is saying we could ambush them by beating them at their own game." Ruki tells Ryo and Henry, as Henry nods.

"Exactly what I'm aiming to have happen; so far as from what I have managed to decipher, the local mob seems to have an influence over Rumiko's boyfriend and that much I more or less know because Darigus has been sighted both at Ruki's household, and then earlier today at Enric's side; Enric seems to be using Darigus for his own agenda, and Darigus seems to be aware of who is on its side and who isn't." Henry tells Ruki, as Ryo nods.

"So whenever they're off relaxing and enjoying themselves, we're too busy relaxing ourselves for the most part. With members we currently don't know about, they have the resources to jump us during this." Ruki says, as Ryo nods.

"Precisely; I'm going to be doing my best to keep Cyberdramon's ferocity in check by keeping him as Monodramon as much as possible; if so much as any of the mob gets caught in our sites, just give me the signal and Millenniummon will have them answering our questions whether they realize they're trapped or not." Ryo says, as Ruki moves to lay her head down again; closing her eyes as she does.

"Meanwhile I'm going to try and get some sleep; I'll be heading out with Jeri tomorrow because Jeri wants to hang out as we usually do; for now I recommend Takato is informed of our plan so that he can be warned to keep Guilmon's Digital Hazard in check." Ruki says as she slowly lets out a small yawn, as Ryo looks over towards Henry and waves goodbye for the time being, as Henry waves back.

The transmission ends with Ryo on his end moving to lay against the couch on the floor just to rest at slight ease now; sure there has been urgent stuff to deal with, but Henry is right so far; the deck is stacked against them because they have had little room to breathe and relax, and Enric's crew has had plenty of time to do both because of members he had under his control that they didn't know about just yet; for that matter they don't even know the name of Rumiko's boyfriend yet despite all of what has been going on.

Now Henry deems it time to wait things out and wait for the proper time to ambush one of Enric's associates with, if not potentially bag Enric himself. Cyberdramon and Guilmon will be kept in check, as Ruki plans to spend the day with Jeri and hopefully ease her mind off of this stress while they work on playing dumb to catch their enemy off guard at the right time.

As Ryo rests against the couch, he opens his eyes and looks at the clock on the VHS player hooked up to his TV at the top; 1:24 AM. Realizing the time, Ryo moves to shut his eyes again, and tries to fall back asleep as he doesn't realize the blanket place over him just yet.

That is, until, a loud "thunk" is heard being dropped off into the mailbox directly outside of Ryo's front doorstep; Ryo's eyes snap open a bit, before hearing someone walking away and driving off away from here on what appears to be a motorcycle. Ryo at first considers trying to check things out immediately; the snoozing Ruki behind him, and the equally dead asleep Monodramon, makes him recall his conversation with Henry.

After all; how do they know for certain they're just getting too stressed out over mundane situations and allowing themselves to be ambushed because of it? They don't; perhaps they need a reminder of someone else who currently has no knowledge on the plan so far.

Let them sleep and relax as far as they please, for tonight is only just beginning for  _me_.


	13. Chapter 12: Other Pulse

It was in the afternoon when Big G had ran off in a hurry, and was last spotted in town once having disposed of Darigus. Big G had been evading everyone's radar; the Mega Radar only had small traces of his presence to detect, since it is clear that wherever the hell Big G is currently going towards, that it is so far out of town that he had long since left the range of the Mega Radar.

That was eleven hours ago; Big G has yet to arrive to his destination, as he runs with a great intensity, shaking the ground with each step he takes on the road's pavement, as what could only be described as a moving mass of land could practically be felt, heard, and seen as Big G runs along the road at an immeasurable speed; quite a feat for someone his size and overall girth.

Flying overhead is a purplish black colored, reinforced in armor like a jet taking the form of a prehistoric, flying reptile of a Digimon as it scouts and observes the area of the land in which Big G is moving across.

[Scanning Perimeter under the orders of Lady Raiga; potential target identified as UD-03 GRANDIS. Shall I pursue?]

[Negative, Stealth-03, but I have one question; where have you pinpointed his trail?]

[Trail covers a vast majority of Washington State leading directly into the north, crossing the border approximately four hours ago and gaining speed ever since seven hours prior. Quite frankly I've never seen UD-03 move this fast; he must be in an uncharacteristic type of hurry it seems.]

[Acknowledged; proceed on standby and do not pursue; not directly, anyways; keep a close eye on him and transmit any useful data once he finally arrives at his intended destination.]

[Roger that, Lady Raiga.]

All Big G knew is that, despite it almost being 1:30 in the morning, he was not late to the date just yet; that wouldn't be a risk until another half hour. In other words, despite all of the on-foot travel, having ran more than any normal person legitimately should travel on foot, Big G would end up not even remotely late, and if things go further, Big G would actually be-

"Look, uh, if you could shut up and stick to my hidden side of my inner monologue, I'd prefer that or if you want to keep narrating, just call me Grandis from this point outward." Grandis reintroduces himself to his own inner thoughts; his thoughts speak aloud, that is no mystery to those who are very familiar with Grandis; he knows everything, he feels everything, and yet despite that his own control over this alleged omniscience is incredibly naïve in nature.

Everything that has been spoken of without the input of everyone else so far; that has all been nothing more than Grandis' own rambling inner monologue, as he himself puts it, narrating everything he can physically and mentally grasp and recall in his own words and intellect to the best of his abilities.

Maybe this is why he was considered the head honcho of the VIP Club once he had been relocated to that school as a janitor; why he took such an unclean job could only truly be explained by his, normally, sloppy nature in terms of uncleanliness and a very boorish appearance; an appearance he had worked very hard for half an hour to clean up, dressing nicely in a white suit, and thus began his several hour journey towards the diner in which his date is waiting for him.

Grandis walks through the forested wilderness the road covers as he sees a bright light up ahead in the darkness; a car light is not what he sees, as the neon lighting and outline of a building could be made out through the pitch black of the night that Grandis is running through towards his long sought destination.

"Finally here; wonder if I'm late." Grandis thinks to himself; a good question considering how he had spent over 12 hours trying to get here in the first place. To be fair towards his case, this place isn't exactly easy to reach.

In Grandis' sights is a diner with a very small outer exterior; Grandis is all too aware that under the very ground he currently stands is a much, much larger room contained on the floor below the main outside building, as the exterior building is nothing short of an over glorified entrance to the main diner proper.

Suddenly anchoring his left foot to try and force himself to a stop, Grandis ends up tumbling all across the road and pavement like a complete klutz as he crashes along the otherwise clean and polished road as Grandis slides to a halt, face first, just in front of this diner of a destination this far out in the wild.

"Man, so far out in the wilderness areas of this state and yet they still have the need for bouncers at the door." Grandis speaks up, as he walks into view of two bouncers at the door to the entrance of the building; faint music can be heard which seems to best be described as a rave going on directly inside and below the three.

Grandis is given a weird look by the two bouncers; both dark skinned in appearance, dressed in white with glowing shades. Dark skin in this case didn't refer to anything brown, however; Grandis could clearly see their skin resembled more a reddish tint to it, but colorful enough that they don't look like undead beings.

"You have what it takes to proceed forward into the Gates of Hell?" The two men speak in unison; as they spoke the sound of at least a dozen more voices could be heard much more calmly asking the same question.

' _Demonic bouncers, eh? Heh, this place truly does warrant the name.'_  Grandis thought; as he looks at the two bouncers as he showcases to the two of them his brownish red, silver pupiled eyes as his pupils slowly form into cat-like slits.

"There's Lady is waiting there for me; she's kind of growing fucking impatient at this rate." Grandis says in a low tone, as the two bouncers look at each other and then open the front door to Grandis.

"Be careful in there, King of the Ultimorian Deities; Enric's in a bad mood tonight."

'As if that's different from any other night.' Grandis thinks, as he moves inside and then down the flight of stairs leading into the main floor of the diner overall. The music's volume intensifies as Grandis gets closer to the door directly at the bottom of the steps, Grandis pauses in place and recoils from the increasing volume of the raze in the next room.

Shutting his eyes in pain, Grandis moves to cover his ears as he as he tries to stabilize himself on the bottom of the stairs; his legs grow weak, as he slowly collapses to the bottom step and his head hitting the floor as his hands cover his ears still.

' _Head injury is the least of my worries, but that music! Turn it off!'_  Grandis thinks to himself as he slowly moves to stand up; his forehead having a small bruise on it, but otherwise undented, as Grandis moves to place his hand on the wall next to the door to stabilize himself to stand properly. His eyes move erratically in his head, leading to his vision becoming blurry and unfocused; his eyes becoming watery as a result.

' _Keep yourself together, "Big G"; you're supposed to be above the typical Ultrarian weakness to intense sound!'_  Grandis scolds himself as he tries to regain his composure, but he can't even process his own thought; the blaring, intense, yet oddly rhythmic beat of the music in the room just next to him only continues to escalate in sound, and Grandis finds his other hand moving to clutch his chest; Grandis lets out an exasperated sigh as his canines begin to shift into boar-like tusks, as his flat teeth shift into a sharper shape that make the inside of Grandis' mouth look increasingly like a deranged meat grinder.

[Grandis. Your stress level is rising.]

"I kind of know that already, Sophia!"

[… Sophia? Who is that?]

That's when Grandis realizes the blaring music was distracting him from who it actually was that is speaking; opening the door and quietly shutting it appears a rather tall woman with near stilt-like legs, and very flexible arms with small, delicate, wire-like metallic fingers; the droid-like humanoid materializes a bright light over itself, before taking the form of a dark skinned woman with violet eyes and dark violet hair.

"… We need to get you an actual body for real still, Kizmel." Grandis states to the woman before him in a rather casual tone of voice; for some reason, Kizmel's presence drowns out the blaring music in the room next door; Grandis' teeth slowly revert back to their normal shape, as Kizmel watches the entirety of Grandis' transformation back to normal, for what little almost had changed further than it did.

[Sorry. I should not have picked this place knowing your sound vulnerability. Are you alright now?] Kizmel asks, to which Grandis pants a bit heavily once his teeth are fully back to normal and he has more of a room to relax and catch his breath.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine, Kizmel, just need to figure out how I'm going to go into that room with you." Grandis tells Kizmel, as Kizmel moves to kneel down to Grandis' level, as she moves to have both of her hands rest on Grandis' shoulders, catching his attention as he looks up into her face; his eyes watering from the pain caused by nearly transforming into something else due to the sound interfering with his train of thought moments ago, Grandis bites the air to check and see if his jaw is properly located into place, as Grandis looks up at Kizmel with a nod.

"Shall we go inside proper?" Grandis asks, as Kizmel moves to cover Grandis' ears with her hands; her hands materialize a large cuff around Grandis' head akin to a headphone set, as Grandis' hearing becomes dumbed down by the immense, oddly heavy restraint on his ears and head.

[Now that you have protection, yes; yes we may.]

Kizmel opens the door into the rave room going on inside and very quickly Grandis isn't surprised by what he sees open gathering his thoughts; he sees teenagers of questionable age, doing gestures in a dance with each other in equally questionable tones of sexuality in their intimate gestures towards their respective partner; a few bachelors are off to the side as they are gathered around an alcohol dispensing machine, as towards the far back of the floor is a private table, separate from all of the others, in which the familiar, gray haired Enric is located alongside three unidentified men, each wearing different masks.

"Mr. Eriksen were the masks really necessary? We're out in the middle of nowhere and all, and we're out of the country so nobody is going to recognize us here!" A man wearing a dog mask asks of Enric, all the while Enric simply looks at him with a curious eye.

"Honestly that's your complaint? You're the one who said you didn't want to come here and yet you came anyways."

"Because I thought you would kill me like you did two others back during the day!"

"Look, Mr. Katou, I get you're scared after what had went down, I am too; I had no idea we were meddling in Grandis' turf until he showed up and disposed of Darigus and-" Enric trails off, as he takes soon begins trying to talk as he chokes on his drink of booze all the while he sees Grandis clear as day at another table with Kizmel, all the while he snaps his fingers twice to get the attention of the other two men, wearing a squid mask and a tin-can for a helmet, who both look at each other with their eyes narrowing a bit.

Grandis meanwhile is eyeing Enric's table with confusion; he had already realized Enric is here the moment he got to his table with Kizmel; Kizmel is merely eyeing her menu she had on hand for any kind of food to order, all the while Grandis has his eyes narrow and almost quite literally locked onto Enric's table as though cartoonishly watching their every move.

' _What's he think he's doing here considering all of these literal redheaded stepchildren?'_

[What about the civilians here?] Kizmel asks Grandis, as Grandis looks back at Kizmel and sighs.

' _It's not exactly nice to read my thoughts like that; surprised you can manage to do so in the first place regardless.'_  Grandis thinks for Kizmel to hear and respond to.

[I'd be concerned about your Digimon's radius of damage with how many people are here and in the surrounding areas.] Kizmel speaks more aloud, but in a quiet tone.

"Relax, Kizmel; then again, who am I to talk? I'm the one stressed out day in and day out because of having to pay for bills out of my own wage for working at that school; doing my job as a janitor and generating revenue further from the active efforts to make all of utilities and dispensers use recyclable material, having to pay for Digitamamon's shipment of all of the food that needs to be brought in for everyone and-"

[Shush~. Do not ramble on a single subject for too long, Grandis.] Kizmel tells Grandis in a more low, subdued voice, as Grandis looks over at Kizmel and sighs; her violet eyes pierce into his borderline blood cell-like eyes a little too well; her eye color is exotic, and Grandis' entire eye structure is alien, but yet the Earthly charm that Kizmel's much more normal eyes have given her a… unique, quality to her, that Grandis does not see too often, especially with something-

' _No. Some_ _ **one**_ _.'_

Grandis makes sure to repress the mental note oh too well; he didn't want anybody to hear it other than himself and his own inner monologue alone; he couldn't show weakness at a place as outlandish as this.

He especially shouldn't be doing so at a time like this anyways; Enric has taken notice of Grandis' presence, and Enric slowly walks over to his and Kizmel's table in which he heartedly chuckles a bit as his masked goons accompany him; Grandis simply scowls towards Enric as he lets out a partial, low, deep growl of sorts.

"King of the Ultimorian Deities, is it not? I would say that I'm rather, well, 'honored', to have you out here in the middle of nowhere in my private lair. I have many privileges as you can tell; living off of the grid, off of the radar, out in the middle of nowhere in which only the criminal underground of all of North America are welcome… and then there's you; a divine when upstairs along with the others… and yet so modest and humble to take on a very literal janitorial form and position so lower class in the world." Enric goes on about Grandis' presence here, all the while Grandis keeps his scowl unmoving as it stays focused on Enric's position. Grandis, after having listened to a few of the last bits of Enric's vent, lightly chuckles a bit with a low snarling being heard.

Enric soon begins chuckling as well, deciding to humor Grandis on his perceived paranoia he has here; whether or not Grandis realizes Enric is merely acknowledging him for now, whether his intents are ill or not still not being clear, Enric decides to at least take in the circumstances of such a low key individual even remotely being an actual deity of sorts; something that turns Enric's chuckling into a more uproarious laughter.

Grandis moves to stand as he can't exactly find himself in a comfortable position to sit with how much laughter begins to quickly erupt from his mouth; thunderous in sound and immensely boisterous, Enric's own laughter intensifies as both he and Grandis seem to be too busy stuck up laughing like maniacs to realize that Enric's two henchmen and Kizmel were both beginning to silently move away from the duo, all the while a very tall man in a battle suit moves to approach the two chubby leaders.

"Excuse me, but do I care to ask why you're laughing so madly? You're disturbing the children." The man asks; his face covered up entirely from within a motorcycle helmet, as Enric is still too busy laughing as Grandis quickly shuts himself up and nearly chokes upon hearing the third man speak up. Enric slowly begins to calm down; all the while he looks over at the frightened Grandis proceeding to move away from the scene.

"Boss." The man in the heavily obscuring attire speaks up towards Enric, as Enric soon begins choking up the remaining laughter he had in him, before gasping for breath but in horror as to the shady man before him.

"Oh, u-uh, Besiege, isn't it? Back so soon?" Enric asks, as Besiege nods as he pulls out a communicator-like device and materializes a coffin right next to Enric as Grandis' eyes widen, before narrowing a bit as he moves to walk behind the man Enric calls "Besiege".

Besiege opens the coffin to reveal a wrapped up, person shaped entity in the midst of it, as well as the entire coffin being littered in solid gold coins. Grandis raises an eye as to what he sees, not truly understanding the significance of this corpse in particular, but he could at least begin to tell what was blocking out from Enric's conversation with Besiege. Enric focuses on talking about how Besiege has found the motherlode of all of the treasure hidden in the nearby vicinity.

Grandis, on the other hand, sees an opportunity.

"Besiege, Enric, might I have a word with you regarding this so called "prize" of yours, as you keep calling it behind my back?" Grandis asks the two of them in a rather sly tone, as Besiege moves to leave as Enric's expression dampens once it becomes clear Besiege isn't intending on sticking by to keep Grandis at check, leaving to the Ultimorian Deity just sort of… grinning uncannily, towards Enric.

"Come up to the roof; I've got something you'll want to see." Grandis says, as he moves to leave the party room as Enric is slowly about to try and leave against Grandis' suggestion, only for Grandis to grab him back the back of his shirt and drag him along anyways. Kizmel is perplexed by what just happened, letting the audio of the party going on as if nothing happened sink in and calming down, before slowly looking towards the coffin.

[~SynchronizE~]

Kizmel's eyes shoot open wide as they appear into glowing, pearl-like spheres of light emanating from her eye sockets; the party music stops into a violent crash and rapid, clicking sounds can be heard as Kizmel's face transforms to obscure her mouth and face from view, leaving her face to look like a blank mask with glowing eyes radiating light upon the coffin in front of her.

[~Transfer, -Alice-~]

Kizmel opens a void within her chest as a bright sphere of energy forms into an artificial, beating organic heart before her view, as the lights shut off in the whole facility as the various redheads present within the facility suddenly begin screaming in horror as they all begin to run and hide once a massive influx of energy begins to circulate Kizmel like a tornado manifesting out of thin air.

[~Synchronizing…~]

Kizmel holds her arms out, as her hands form into the petals of a large cannon, before a pillar of light erupts from her hands and feeds itself into the corpse mummified within the coffin; Enric's two henchmen are about to do something about this aberration, but Besiege stops the two from going anywhere as he forcefully holds them in place. As the corpse begins to glow an immense light, the heart-like device being placed within it, it begins to disappear into the light itself.

Eyes open on the humanoid's face, before its own body disappears into nothing, as Kizmel ceases in her energy storm and quickly vanishes from view altogether. The teens all look upon where Kizmel was, as Besiege moves to slowly walk towards the coffin and have a look as to what remained inside.

A DigiCore takes the place of the corpse, as it moves to lift itself up into the air via levitation; its pulse can be heard audibly similar to a heartbeat, as it moves to infiltrate the nearest electrical system it can find before vanishing altogether.

Leaving only a reminder of itself in the form of the satellite dish at the top of the building firing a laser projectile out into the night sky, seemingly for no reason at all; silence can be heard, Grandis and Enric seemingly not noticing it at all.

"Alright, Grandis, you wish to talk, yes?" Enric asks, as Grandis grins.

_Oh, I most definitely do._


	14. Chapter 13: Crimson

Quite frankly its best that the others don't know what just ensued last night at Enric's little party house in the middle of nowhere. The mere instant I detected an odd pulsation coming from Jeri's house, let's just say I have my reasons to investigate what's going on all the way back down south right now. I may not be truly telekinetic despite my omniscience, but I can at least work up an excuse to try and get Jeri into a position where she's going to have to call one of the guys over to her place to investigate.

I mean, if the One and Only wanted me to be the King of the Ultimorian Deities so bad, surely he had to have given me some of his great ole' "phenomenal cosmic power" in at least some regard. At least, I could hope; for now I'm just an inanimate voice speaking from the comatose form of Grandis soon approaching the sunrise of the day; not a clue what happened to Enric and his crazy crew, though.

Still, for the moment I need an idea to warn the others while I'm still a good dozen or so hours away from them in proximity, which perhaps the Enigma we've all been searching for is a little closer to home than we always thought.

The big idea hits me as a severe thunderstorm hits the outskirts of Seattle; a flash flood warning is being given out due to the intensity of the situation. Was this my doing, or was Enigma just toying with me just now? Whatever the Enigma anomaly is that's been plaguing me for so long, I finally get an alert on my digivice, as much as I can even hear it in this state, as the thunderstorm hits its tempest at 7 AM in the morning.

From what I can picture the whole city of Seattle in my mind alongside the reoccurring image of the Mega Radar I have planned out and stationed across the whole state, this appears to be big news.

The Mega Radar shows a massive blip on the radar; Digital Hazard and all of its glory practically swims through the now flooding streets of Seattle.

* * *

Houses are beginning to weaken in durability as rooftops risk collapsing if anything of substantial size collapses onto them at any given moment; Impmon, having been staying outside in the rain literally checking on the weather, did not expect the weather to turn into such heavy downpour. Regardless, Impmon shrugs it off and looks down to the window below to Jeri's bedroom.

"Oi… Talk about the storm of the year so far… Better wake Jeri up." Impmon says to himself; having bene observing the whole storm happen so far, the rain pours down on the top of the roof at a tremendous rate. Impmon is first about to head inside to do what he just says, but something in the now river-like streets of the downtown area catches his eye.

Something glowing a bright orange and red, having a purely white body outside of its armored scales, and on its shoulders glows and radiates the Digital Hazard to Impmon. Impmon doesn't budge as to whatever this aquatic Digimon appears to be, not only because the Digital Hazard within it makes it unpredictable, but because as far as he can tell from the energy he senses from it.

It's a fully-fledged Mega Level, swimming through the streets in an otter-like fashion, despite having a head that, as far as Impmon can tell, have piranha-like teeth.

Teeth that quickly sink in to the koi fish that have been misplaced in the area, originally from Ruki's pond in her backyard, and quickly consuming the oversized goldfish wannabes in a single bite.

"Hey! Those aren't your fish those are her fish!" Impmon yells out towards the goliath swimming Digimon, only to cover his mouth with his hands as he notices the swimming Digital Hazard heading in his direction after turning like a dime to focus on him; Impmon sidesteps out of the way as from the water emerges a relatively medium sized Digimon with mixture of otter, piranha, and lizard-like traits, jumping onto the roof with Impmon after crashing down on the surface of Jeri's household roof.

A mistake it realizes too late; if the downpour could easily make the other houses less stable in durability, and considering Jeri's house looks a little worse for wear, the giant otter-like Digimon moves to try and turn around to face Impmon; razor sharp scales shredding through the top of the roof as it does so.

Impmon's eyes widen, knowing what will happen next as the top of the roof underneath the otter-like Digimon intruder gives in and collapses beneath it; letting out a crocodilian hiss as it falls into Jeri's attic, Impmon moves to check about the intruder's condition in the attic. Jumping down below, Impmon finds the Digimon quickly drying up; prominent gills on the sides of its neck suddenly seal up tight, the Digimon's entire face folds excretes a coating material that covers its entire form, covering itself in a bubbling substance that conceals it into a cocoon hydrated entirely on the inside.

"Huh, who would've thought this is the intruder that's been bugging Renamon so much." Impmon says as he walks over towards the cocoon, as he places his hand on the top of it and feels the hardening exterior case of it.

"Rather primitive for a Mega Level in terms of adaptability to the situation, but I suppose it's more than enough any other time to pose Renamon a problem." Impmon says to himself as he looks up into the hole in the ceiling and notices the run beginning to let up as a faint glow from the sunrise could be seen in the sky.

"Impmon? Is something going on upstairs?" Jeri's voice can be heard, as Impmon finds the nearest way out of the attic as he can to get his way back downstairs; the Digimon isn't going to be going anywhere given its current state, but right now that seems to be the least of everyone's trouble right now.

Moving down to face Jeri after coming from a dropdown door, Jeri looks at Impmon as she wonders why he was in the attic. "Impmon? What happened up there?" Jeri asks, as Impmon looks at Jeri and sighs.

"Do you happen to have a waterproof basement?" Impmon asks; Jeri shakes her head no in response.

"Does anybody you know have a waterproof basement?" Impmon asks a second time for specifics; Jeri nods her head.

"Yes, I think Takato does." Jeri points out, as Impmon raises an eye.

"I take you're not going to let me try and ask the others to come over and-"

Impmon stops himself due to the sheer disbelief he has on his face next; not even two seconds into what he was saying, and Jeri has already dialed Takato's household.

"Yes? Is Takato there? May I speak with him, please?" Jeri asks on the digivice she has, using it no differently from how someone would use a cellphone. Impmon rolls his eyes as to the notion, but he quickly hears Takato's voice pick up from the digivice.

"H-Hello…?" Impmon's expression of bummed out bemusement twisted into a suspicious confusion.

"Takato? It's me, Jeri." Jeri says, innocently.

"J-Jeri? Um… W-Well… H-H-How are you d-doing…?"

"I'm doing fine, Takato, how about you?"

"… I-I'm, u-uh, doing w-well…"

Takato appears far less confident in his tone compared to the past few times Impmon had heard him speak to Jeri; perhaps Jeri asking him to kiss her made him increasingly anxious.

Perhaps a talk between the two was in order at this moment.

"So, Takato; I know I probably should ask the others about this, but…"

* * *

It took only half an hour for Takato to be moments from arriving; Impmon is finishing up telling Jeri about what happened before she had woken up, in which Impmon encountered an unknown Mega Level Digimon in Jeri's attic, which subsequently caused the hole in the roof and thus requiring much of the stuff in the attic to be moved.

"Seems like we're becoming a popular duo at this rate, Impmon." Jeri tells her partner, as Impmon shrugs.

"I guess? I honestly don't like the attention since I've only just reacquired Ultimate Level, so I don't think I could honestly deal with a full-fledged Mega Level at this rate." Impmon tells his tamer, as Jeri nods, before her eyes open wide a little bit.

"… Wait. Reacquire? You've been Ultimate Level before?" Jeri asks with an intrigued and excited tone, as Jeri's eyes gleam in excitement as she gazes upon Impmon; Impmon flinches a bit when he hears the front door start to open; the way the doorknob is grabbed hold of seems a little too strong for Takato, as a heavy movement can be felt opening the door.

Impmon moves to hide behind Jeri, as opening the door appears a fairly tall, somewhat overweight man of a bulky proportion, looking all beyond exhausted as he lazily sets his keys on a holder next to the front door inside of the house. His eyes aren't even fully open as to how tired he is, as he moves to walk forward into the house. Jeri blinks, moving to walk up to the man excitedly.

"Dad! You're home! How was work?" Jeri asks, cheerful as ever, as the man simply groans as he moves to grab some cash from his wallet; setting a $20 bill on the table in the living room, he moves to lazily walk towards a door in the house labeled "Dad's Room" on the door itself.

"Not now, Jeri; I've just got home and I want to sleep for a while…" Mr. Katou says to Jeri, as Jeri still looks rather excited despite his obvious disinterest; disinterest that Impmon is quick to notice is practically no interest whatsoever.

"But dad! I want to show you my friend Impmon! He's actually real!" Jeri gleams excitedly all the while her mouth doesn't stop moving as she continues to go on about the subject at hand; often times repeating her own words, with Mr. Katou having to dismiss her to no avail when Jeri would do so. Impmon is stunned by how Jeri wants to introduce him to her father so soon, but Impmon has other concerns aside from that.

Jeri continuously tries to press the issue of simply meeting Impmon on to Mr. Katou; not stopping even when Takato arrives at the front door and peers in. Impmon didn't even notice it at first, but upon looking at Takato's shaking blush he has peeking inside the house, Impmon focuses on Jeri and notices what she's saying now.

"Oh and I finally met Takato!"

"Who?"

"Takato the Crimson Striker! He's the best soccer player in my grade! Such charisma, such refined, strong muscles, such a cute widdle face, such pretty pigtails –although we've never seen him with them at school proper –such a flavorful taste of lips, a wonderful bakery cook, a confident Digimon tamer and-"

' _Why does she call me confident at a time like this…?'_  Takato thought, as he is about to step away from the front door, feeling like coming here was a bad idea; upon further inspection, he realizes Jeri's house has a giant hole in its roof, leaving to Takato to remember the real reason why he had come here.

' _Alright Takato, you can handle this; all we needs to do is move stuff from Jeri's attic to my basement at my house so that it's safe and sound. Do not worry; you can do this.'_

"-and he's right here at the front door!" Jeri excitedly exclaims as Takato's face flushes a bright red; Jeri opens the door, giggling all the while as she wraps her arms around Takato and practically tackles him onto the ground. Takato's face is beat red all the while Jeri giggles happily.

' _I'm going to hell for what I'm going to have to tell her soon aren't I?'_ Takato thinks to himself, as he looks at Jeri closely as he shudders a little bit; Jeri moves to look into Takato's eyes, her eyes sparkling with desire, all the while she can be heard purring a little bit.

Takato trembles even more as sweat drops visibly fall across his whole face; his entire face becomes a burning crimson as Jeri moves to close the gap between their faces; her eyes close as she puckers her lips, all the while Takato's trembling form reaches a tempest and Takato kicks his legs and moves himself and Jeri into a standing position; Jeri's eyes snap open wide upon feeling Takato push her, until Takato moves to pin Jeri to the nearest wall as Takato's gaze shows fear and regret within them; his entire figure shakes and sweats from the anxiety of the situation, as Takato squints as he tries to force himself to speak.

"T-Takato?" Jeri asks, naïve to the situation, as Takato's eyes open wide as his mind snaps.

"Jeri love doesn't work the way you think!" Takato yells as Jeri, as Jeri's eyes widen as her breathing briefly stops. Takato gasps for air as he tries to compose himself, all the while shaking and shivering as he moves to back away from Jeri in fright.

"J-Jeri, I don't know what you know about romance, but I don't even know if I even have feelings for you the same way I do… not yet, anyways…" Takato says, as he looks around for a spot to sit down; he looks at Jeri's expression, noting her confusion in all of this alongside her sadness, as Takato, very lightly, places his left hand on Jeri's shoulder and gestures her to a table to have a seat with him.

"We should talk about this; I feel it'll be for the best of us." Takato says, as Jeri looks at Takato, very slowly and calmly nodding. As the two move to sit down on a chair beside each other, Takato and Jeri are turned to face each other in their seat as Takato's trembling is still going on from what Jeri can notice.

"Takato? Why are you shaking?" Jeri asks, as Takato notices his entire form shaking still, as he tries to force himself to stop, letting out a brief sigh.

"I-I'm nervous, Jeri; I haven't been truly alone with you before. Every other time we've been near each other, Henry, Ruki, Ryo, any of them has been there at least in some way or form to back me up." Takato slowly tells Jeri, as Jeri keeps her gaze focusing on Takato; she notices a few tears form in Takato's eyes, light they may be, as Takato moves to take a deep breath, letting out a very subdued sigh afterwards.

"I've never dated anyone before, Jeri; I'm often too busy with sports or school to focus on my social life; Guilmon's introduction into my life forced my hand elsewhere, even though he took me away from my comfort zone each time he needed attention." Takato speaks, as Jeri listens quietly, all the while Jeri looks more closely at the tears forming in Takato's eyes.

Takato, still spooked by having had to force Jeri off of him so violently as he did, doesn't know how to respond when he feels Jeri move her soft, delicate hands to brush away Takato's tears from his eyes before they could fall. Jeri's touch is so gentle, almost to the point Takato didn't deserve to be graced with such a soft touch; Jeri's hands move to rest on Takato's shoulders, as Takato's eyes lock on to Jeri's own as their gazes meet each other directly.

Takato averts his gaze as quickly as possible from Jeri, though, as the look into her brown, chocolate eyes only made him more nervous about being here at all. Jeri's innocently oblivious expression doesn't help any matters; Takato prepares himself to try and find a way to get himself out of this, but he doesn't want to be mean to Jeri in doing so.

 _'Regardless, I feel the truth must come clean…'_  Takato thinks to himself, as he moves to look at Jeri's gleaming expression; he would not like what he'll have to say next.

"Jeri… I-I think it's too early for either of us to consider dating each other. We hardly know each other and all, yet…" Takato looks at Jeri's expression as he tries to finish his thoughts on the matter, to which Jeri's eyes become wide and sparkly as to Takato's increasingly obvious, beat red blush he has on during all of this.

"Takato…?" Jeri asks, as she slowly moves her right hand to trail along Takato's chest, moving upward with her fingers, the feeling of her hands touching and caressing Takato's neck and lower cheek making him soften his eyes and let out a low grunt, all the while Jeri's hand moves to quietly poke Takato on the nose with her delicate touch with her index finger. Takato's eyes snap open wide as to Jeri's gesture, as he notices Jeri's gaze is more normal now than it has been for what has appeared to have been a solid five minutes.

"Takato?" Jeri repeats herself, catching the brunet's attention.

"Yes, Jeri?" Takato responds, to which Jeri giggles.

"We won't know more about each other unless you ask me out, silly. Or do I have to do it for you?" Jeri informs Takato, as Takato's gaze softens as he moves to sit on the floor in Jeri's house, as Jeri moves to sit down with him, facing him directly.

"So, what will it be, Takato? Will you go out with me?" Jeri asks, as Takato looks at Jeri nervously, before his gaze turns more serious with determination as he's asked those key words from Jeri.

"Y-Yes… I'll go out with you, Jeri…"

* * *

_"This is an emergency weather broadcast for King County and all surrounding areas at least 100 miles away from the borders of the region. An immense heatwave is going to hit this region and spread further across the state as the afternoon goes on; initial temperature will be cool prior to afternoon, but will soon skyrocket to upwards of 120 degrees Fahrenheit and counting. We have not identified the cause of this temperature increase, but we must warn you to be prepared for any and all fires that could start during such a time. This warning is in effect until approximately three days from now."_

* * *

About half an hour passes as Takato and Jeri get to moving boxes from Jeri's attic down into Takato's truck; the two could begin to feel the effects of the heatwave that Takato's radio was alerted to, but it's only going to get worse from here on out.

"We'll head over to my place to spend some time there once we move all of this; your house doesn't appear to have any proper air conditioning so it'll be hazardous for you to stay there." Takato tells Jeri, as Jeri nods from heading back up into the attic; Jeri notices all of the boxes were now in Takato's truck, except for what appeared to be a massive sack of some kind, to which Impmon looks up into the attic and recognizes it as the Mega Level Digimon's cocoon.

"Uh, Jeri, I think it might be wise we take that with us." Normally Impmon wouldn't have said such a thing, but considering the upcoming heat, if this Digimon so much as went ballistic without him or Guilmon here to back things up, things could easily go south as Ruki isn't at her house today and is at Ryo's, and then Henry is back at the school keeping things checked on there.

"So what do we have to do to move it then?" Jeri asks, as Takato moves to head up into the attic, as sweat can be seen forming on his forehead and across his arms, leading to Takato to stripping off his shirt and wrapping it around his waist like a belt, causing Jeri's eyes to widen as a blush forms on her face as Takato lifts the sack up over his shoulder, heading back downstairs to put the sack into the truck.

"Let's hurry on out; heat's going to catch up to us soon and-"

"Hold on!" Takato is interrupted by Mr. Katou walking out to confront Takato, as Impmon is quick to hide behind something and out of notice of Jeri's father, as Takato nearly flinches as he looks at Mr. Katou with all of his attention; the man looks a bit nervous, but he's nearly half asleep with his movement and expression he has.

"Can you drop something off for a guy who works at the school for me? I do believe his name is Martin and he had left something behind when we bumped into each other last night." Mr. Katou asks of Takato, as Takato and Jeri both look at Mr. Katou hands Takato a rather strangely designed digivice, at least, from what they could recognize it as being anyways.

"Sure thing." Takato tells Mr. Katou, as Jeri moves to get into the truck in the passenger seat, as Takato and Jeri both wave goodbye as Takato gets into the driver's seat and moves to drive off from Jeri's driveway and out into the open street, beginning to head in the direction of his place.

"So… T-Takato…?" Jeri asks, as Takato glances over to Jeri at the side of his vision.

"Yes?"

"You're a sweet guy."

Jeri's compliment hits Takato's ears and has his gaze soften a little bit, slowly letting his lips form into a wide smile as he blushes a bit, though keeping his focus on the road ahead.

"T-Thank you, Jeri."


	15. Chapter 14: Shooting a Message

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This is personally a very anxiety driven chapter of any particular fic I've ever written. In hindsight, Chapter 13 prior was badly timed in terms of being uploaded in the middle of firestorms happening on the west coast, but offending anybody with it wasn't intended since I had planned the chapter months in advance all the way back in the summer, before the recent wildfires even occurred. With that said, I would like to let my sympathy for those who have had to endure this tragic event be known in that I do not intend to offend anybody with the increasingly harsher in hindsight subject matter regarding the upcoming debut of Brondramon.

_**[WARNING! WARNING! PRESSURE LEVELS ABOVE 500 kPa AND COUNTING! TEMPERATURE ABOVE 10,000 K AND RISING IMMENSELY! TURN BACK IMMEDIATELY! WARNING! WARNING!]** _

* * *

Enric stares in complete bemusement; he had to have been tricked just a moment now; Grandis couldn't have possibly shown him what he's implying he did? Grandis has his hand set on top of Enric's head, with a grasp so strong the man's eyes looked like they would burst from his skull is squeezed a bit further. Grandis, whose eyes are feral akin to a cat's eye, slowly has his frenzied slits for pupils revert back into their normal, circular shape.

"So are these two in a different timezone or something? It's the dark hours of the morning where we are!" Enric points out to Grandis, as Grandis removes his hand from the top of Enric's head. As Grandis moves to grasp his own head by his cheeks, he forcefully pushes his head to the right with an audible crackling sound being heard as Enric flinches as his eyes widen completely; Grandis remains relatively idle in movement for a bit as his hands continue to forcefully turn his head to the right.

"So what did you think you saw?" Grandis asks, as he forcefully pulls his head back into place facing towards Enric, complete with a thunderous snap being heard as he does so. Grandis is busy giving a rather uncannily normal scowl to Enric; Enric is disturbed, but not because of the look on Grandis' face.

"No pain I take it?" Enric asks, an eye raised as to how Grandis isn't dead from that little trick of his; Grandis merely chuckles as to the thought.

"Boy you haven't even  _remotely_  seen the worst I've had to endure after eons of living, Ogudomon." Grandis tells Enric, as Grandis continues chuckling a little bit, with Enric hesitantly joining in on the chuckling. Both of the two abnormal men both laugh as to their own moment they're having here, not as enemies for once. Enric, though, does a double take when he realizes what Grandis had just said at the end of his sentence.

"… Ogudo what now?" Enric asks, as Grandis' glare intensifies as his pupils form into cat-like slits again upon looking at Enric more closely.

" _ **Drop the pretenses."**_  Grandis orders to Enric, as Enric is stunned by Grandis' sudden, harsh, but oddly quiet hostility on display.

"Alright, fine…" Enric says, as his whole form begins to flicker in and out of reality, as in his place begins to realize an even bigger form a good substantial height taller than Raiga. Manifesting seven legs with swords impeded into them, a mouth on his underside surrounded by eyes underneath each leg, and forming a body up top with no visible arms, a frilled collar of some kind forming a part of his main body, and an insectoid with reptilian features head with a single, green visor for an eye with primary colors on his body being purple mixed with black, with blood red claws.

"So what gave this little secret away to you, Grandis? You're quite honestly the first to have outright referred to me by my true form." Ogudomon asks of Grandis, as Grandis simply shrugs.

"You see, Ogudomon, every time I show someone a vision of the most possible to happen future, I can look right back at the other person while they're too busy focusing on what they see within my own eyes." Grandis states, as he and Ogudomon are both shaking due to some unnatural force below them; the satellite dish right next to the duo begins to activate, and sends out a laser of some kind into the night sky.

"When I share the view of the future with someone, there are never any secrets to be kept." Grandis finishes, as he notices the satellite having gone off, as Ogudomon's attention is already fixated on this part on the surface of his secret hideaway.

"… Mind I ask what exactly this satellite is for?" Grandis asks, kneeling down and reading a solid silver section of it, reading as "LLD-1169", as Ogudomon looks at Grandis with a confused grin.

"I… honestly don't know. That satellite dish has been busted since the 80s, anyways." Ogudomon tells him, as Grandis keeps an eye on the plate with the label on it. Ogudomon cracks his neck as he twists his head around to stretch a little bit, as he notices Grandis unmoving from his spot.

"Do you not believe me, King of the Ultimorian Deities?" Ogudomon questions to Grandis, as Grandis looks back up at Ogudomon with a glance.

"Oh I believe you, Ogudomon; the wires on this thing are rusted beyond all repairs if they're not flat out broken altogether." Grandis tells Ogudomon, as he moves to stand back up and look up at Ogudomon in the eye on his head.

"Point is, I don't know how a frickin' laser fired from it if the thing is in such a bad condition." Grandis asks, as he shakes his head in uncertainty as he looks up at the sky towards the satellite's focus. Ogudomon transforms back into his form as Enric, as Enric simply walks up to Grandis and pats him on the shoulder.

"We'll worry about this some other time if you don't mind; we haven't even had our drinks served tonight and right now I could use some fine beer before the sun rises. What do you say, Big G, you in for a drinking game or few?" Enric asks, as Grandis gives Enric a bit of a weird look with a raised eye, before jumping off of the roof of the entrance to the club below as does Enric, Enric opening the door for Grandis as Grandis walks inside, with Enric following from behind.

Once inside, both of them can be heard chuckling all the while, as Pteramon from before flies overhead and reports the audio on their end all the way back at the school for Raiga to hear.

* * *

All of Raiga's possible alarms couldn't have gone off at a worse time than now; Big G is at his unknown destination in southwestern Canada, and hasn't yet realized the amount of flaming mass is heading his way; Pteramon, circling the skies above where they had been, opens up the communication channel to Raiga to try and get in touch with her.

[Stealth-03, can you identify what Grandis is up to?!] Raiga's voice blasts through Pteramon's comlink before Pteramon even gets the chance to speak.

[Are you sure you want me to intercept? I'm kind of outgunned here.]

[As if you wouldn't be no matter what level you are! Ogudomon is not a threat to take lightly here!]

[…] Pteramon began to lose their patience; scanning the upper atmosphere, no traces of the alarms Raiga was referring to even make a blip on their radar; the skies appeared far too quiet.

Temperature readings measured at 10 degrees Celsius.

[… Raiga maybe you should come up here yourself and confront Ogudomon on your own…] Pteramon asks of their superior, to which their voice is rather timid as they do another flyby of Grandis and Enric's location; scouting the area for any signs of trouble.

[You want me to head there? Do you have any idea how the international police will react?!]

[Raiga! You  _are_  the international police! So get on over here and-] Pteramon orders as not a mere second later, an obscured man appears on Pteramon's comlink. Pteramon is confused, quickly becoming worried as Pteramon's entire vision and senses can only see and hear this individual man. Breathing heavily in a very, very low tone, the masked man doesn't move an inch as he glances at Pteramon.

[Greetings.] The man says, as he gives a wave of his hand, [I am nobody, but you, on the other hand, know somebody who looks… suspicious.] The man states to Pteramon, as Pteramon circles around yet again in the air, flying in an unknown direction due to their senses being completely blinded by this mysterious man.

[Who are you?] Pteramon asks; the man chuckles.

[I am nobody; I already told you this.] The man states, as Pteramon growls.

[Okay, then what do you want?] Pteramon asks, suspicious about this mysterious bystander.

[I want to deliver a package; a package with very discrete instructions, and must not be opened by anyone else other than the recipient. Understood?] The man asks, without even so much as moving; his heavy breathing still audible by this point, as the man's calm, soft-spoken demeanor is worrying to Pteramon.

[… And why should I listen to this anonymous order?]

[…] The man remains silent; Pteramon's thrusters suddenly force them to take a drastic turn in an entirely different direction. Pteramon cannot see still, but had they been able to, they would've seen themselves flying at an alarming speed back to the United States; homing in directly on the school.

[Allow me to remind you of your species' inherent abilities, perhaps.]

* * *

Raiga stands directly outside; impatiently tapping her foot against the ground as Henry and Rapidmon keep a close eye out for anything suspicious; Raiga's eyes are closed as she only gets further annoyed by a lack of a response from Pteramon.

"Maybe they got lost in a storm? I think you're taking this too seriously, Raiga." Henry tells the Royal Knight Digimon, as Raiga has her eyes snap wide open as she turns towards Henry to glare him down.

"Do you have any idea how much it baffles me as to how Grandis has been alluding my sensors all of this time?! I shouldn't even need Stealth-03 to deal with him and yet here I am!" Raiga angrily shouts in the dead of the night towards Henry, as Henry blinks, but otherwise isn't fazed by Raiga's aggression. Rapidmon looks up into the sky to see if anything is heading towards the three of them, but doesn't see anything despite a tingling feeling on the back of his mind.

"Uh… Raiga? Are you sensing an unusual disturbance in the sky?" Rapidmon asks, as Rapidmon moves to step back a bit, as Raiga turns and faces him; Raiga can see the look of fear forming in his eyes, but cannot understand why; Rapidmon has detected something, but from the looks of it, Rapidmon seems to be detecting something she can't.

Then the realization hits her mind; Raiga kicks Rapidmon out of the way and onto the ground, taking a step forward as Raiga twists and moves her arms outwards as a sharp, piercing sound is heard as an immense gust of wind can be felt shaking the entire area. Henry is knocked backwards onto the ground, as Rapidmon slowly moves to get up, only briefly stunned by the impact of something nearby, as Rapidmon turns himself around and stares with horror as to what had crashed.

"Raiga!"

Raiga now stands with her arms' joints disconnecting from her main body; Pteramon is now right in front of Raiga, with Pteramon's beak pierced clean into Raiga's chest; Pteramon is horrified, but still cannot see anything aside from the mysterious man in their visor's gaze. Raiga's entire chest is punctured by Pteramon's razor sharp beak, as Raiga's arms at this point let loose a powerful static field as they severe from Raiga's body, as it collapses to the ground and into a giant array of light.

[You knew too well your species stealth abilities and your beak would do, regardless of the target in question; your superior was one of the strongest Digimon known to exist, but your Beak Pierce technique knows no limitations; regardless of the thickness of the armor, it's a clean stab into the target's digicore; quick, efficient, and fatal.] The man explains to Pteramon in a calm tone; completely unfazed by the unwitting murder Pteramon had committed, but Rapidmon simply gets up and interrupts the comlink.

[Too bad for you; Raiga has a failsafe in this case.] Rapidmon states, as Raiga's arms begin transforming from giant heads serving as limbs, to full on physical bodies of two different Digimon, one a humanoid Ceratosaurid Digimon with gold and silver armor and clawed weaponry, the other a bestial wolf with cybernetic components covering its whole body.

"W-What… what happened…?" The MetalGarurumon asks, as he moves to stand up; the WarGreymon moves to stand as well, before looking at Pteramon's shocked state with a keen eye.

Though not before busting up in an incredibly feminine, haughty tone of a laugh as the WarGreymon joins in on the communication channel with Pteramon and the mysterious man to give her own two cents, [Sorry, but I think your so called attempt to assassinate us only proved to free us from that wretched DNA Digivolution!] The WarGreymon tells the man, as Pteramon is left completely confused, as the MetalGarurumon begins laughing as well.

[Yeah! Tell me about it, Flare! This guy honestly thought he'd make a point trying to kill us as Raiga?!] The MetalGarurumon says, as Henry and Rapidmon give an odd look to each other, before looking at the duo.

"Tempest, is it? I don't mean to interrupt, but why aren't you taking this seriously?!" Henry asks, completely angered at the fact Flare and Tempest both considered this to be nothing more than a joke of an allegedly botched up assassination attempt; Henry doesn't find it funny, neither do Rapidmon and Pteramon, all the while the mysterious man moves to cough as to get Pteramon's attention.

[I figured as much; it's quite a shame none of you realize how important of a target you once were, now that the Legendary Light Dragon has nothing stopping it now from breaking into our world.]

Flare and Tempest nearly choke on their own laughter the instant the man mentions a "Legendary Light Dragon", as Rapidmon and Pteramon gasp, as Henry's eye widen with concern as he pulls out his digivice as to forcefully join the communication channel.

"Alright then you sick fuck, what is this about the Legendary Light Dragon breaking free?!" Henry demands to know from the mysterious man.

[This information is not for you; I will delay the dragon's attack so long as my package is delivered to someone you know. If you refuse me again, you shall have no more than 24 hours to kiss this part of the world goodbye as Brondramon razes down the entire landscape.]

"You expect us to follow through a terrorist order like that?!" Henry yells at the man, as the man simply tilts his head to the side.

[You don't have a choice; Brondramon is already on the move. You'll die like the rest if you do not comply.] The man simply states, as Henry's eyes stay wide open as he gazes upon Rapidmon, Flare and Tempest. All three are quick to notice, however, that Pteramon has already left and is flying off in the distance back towards the source of the mystery man's signal.

[Sorry guys, I'm not risking any world getting destroyed for a simple package at this rate!] Pteramon yells at Henry over the comlink, as Henry shakes his head at this.

"Pteramon you don't have to do this! What if the man is lying?!" Henry asks of Pteramon, as Rapidmon walks up to him.

"Look Henry, Flare and Tempest are in no condition to fight after having just been separated from a DNA Digivolved state in such a way! We've don't have many options left if Brondramon is indeed trying to break free!" Rapidmon tells him, as Flare and Tempest nod.

"Even if we were fighting fit, Brondramon's immense heat would destroy us both with ease and we wouldn't be able to scratch it!" Flare tells Henry, as Tempest nods.

"It's best to let Pteramon deliver the package to whomever this man intends to get into contact with. I don't like any of this as much as the rest of you, but I think we need to at least humor this man for now until we can secure the barrier between our worlds." Tempest tells Henry, as Henry looks over at him, then at Flare, before finally setting his gaze upon Rapidmon, as he lets out an exhausted sigh.

"… Looks like we don't have a choice it seems… but do not let word of this spread lightly, or else this could escalate into an even bigger mess than we need, alright?" Henry asks the trio of Digimon before him, as Rapidmon nods.

"You can count on me." Rapidmon says, as Flare and Tempest look at each other as they both turn away from Henry and Rapidmon.

"We need to warn Alphamon about this; find a way to delay the attack on our own end before things hit the human world." Tempest whispers to Flare, as Flare nods.

"Agreed." Flare says, as she jumps off into the air and flies off, as Tempest does the same and follows her.

* * *

This is turning out to be a pleasant morning, albeit a very hot one, for Ruki right now; Ryo is out doing yard work at his house, all the while Ruki gets a nice, sunny view from the porch where she's sitting at. A very nice view, all things considered, as Ruki's gaze glistens as she sees Ryo's hard, tough and chiseled body work away at pulling weeds from the ground; all around muscular from the back, Ryo would know too well Ruki especially likes his front where his abdominals are on full display.

"Say, Ruki?" Ryo asks, "You have a package for you in the mail about an hour ago, did you get what's in it yet?" Ryo asks, innocently, all the while Ruki smiles.

"I'll check on it right now, hon." Ruki says, as she moves to stretch and stand up; the shade of the porch is nice, all the while the view of Ryo's strong frame is even more wonderful for her, as Ruki moves to check the mail on the front porch feeling like nothing can ruin her mood right now. A medium sized cardboard box is within the mail pile, as Ruki moves to check the label on it to see if it belongs to her; her smile dampens a little bit, as she doesn't recognize the name of whomever sent this.

The name, however, sounds uncannily familiar; as if it has some kind of meaning to Ruki. Nevertheless, Ruki doesn't know what to think; her only immediate response is to open the package and find out what's inside, as she moves to tear away the tape keeping it shut, all the while Ryo keeps on working in the yard.

A loud gasp from Ruki catches Ryo's attention, all the while Ryo moves to stand and check up on her; a look of horror is spread wide across Ruki's face, all the while Ryo is confused about what could've arrived in the mail to scare her like this. As Ruki moves to pick up the container from within the cardboard box, Ruki stares at the contained item as Ryo's eyes widen as clear as day.

In Ruki's hands is a pistol; complete with actual ammunition, to go with an actual, real firearm. The label on it, though, seems to be what scares Ruki the most, as Ryo reads what it says in his head.

"Greetings, my daughter. I have some words I want to share with you elsewhere, once you get the time."


	16. Chapter 15: Faux Salvation

If only Grandis knew just how much the stars aligned over the course of the sunrise up until around 9 AM in the morning; being so heavily smashed by whatever he had drank the night prior, his senses were so busy being completely numbed right now that he didn't even feel or even see it when it hit him.

Already laying on the ground, in the middle of the road, a camper van had just crashed into Grandis' slumbering lump of a mass all the while Grandis is still too heavily out of it to even acknowledge the severe hangover, all the while two men get out of the van's driver and passenger seats to check on what they had ran into.

"Surprised we didn't damage Lee's van at all with that crash..." A rather meek, timid man's voice speaks as he walks out to look at Grandis in front of the camper van, gasping as he does; the other man opposite to him, chuckling in a very course, rough, masculine voice, looks down at Grandis as he leans back on the hood of the van.

"That'd be our Big G alright; wonder why he'd be here of all places." The man speaks, in a rather odd accent; to anyone else native to the US, the only accent to compare would be Grandis' southern accent, but this one had an odd, rather "Japanese" sound to it.

"Maybe we should put him in the back and take him back home, Kazu; I mean we're already heading back there ourselves." The softer voice of the other man asks, to which the rough toned man, named "Kazu", simply nods.

"Agreed; he doesn't look in a good condition anyways, Kenta." Kazu tells his friend, as he moves to try and lift Grandis off of the ground, grabbing him by the shoulder; even from what his musculature shows, he isn't strong enough to so much as make Grandis even budge an inch; Kazu moves to lend a hand, all the while Grandis still doesn't budge even despite both of the two teens grabbing his shoulders.

As the two try to lift him, eventually trying to drag him to try and get him to budge, failing every second of it, Grandis' eyes shoot wide open as Grandis' front rears up as the duo are suddenly thrust into the hood of the van at an immense force from Grandis' movement while still holding onto him; Grandis lets out a dazed, partially conscious groan as Kazu and Kenta recoil from the impact, though at the cost of Kenta's left hand and almost his whole right arm suddenly in pain.

"Augh! Big G, can you at least be careful with this sort of thing?!" Kenta yells at Grandis in a much less timid, very loud and screeching tone, as Grandis turns to face him as his eyes widen as Grandis gives him a partially frenzied look, as Kenta moves out of the way as Kazu grabs something from the driver's seat in a hurry.

"No! Big G I didn't mean to yell at you like that knowing your weak-" Kenta tries to apologize; all the while Kenta looks on with concern.

"Maybe we should just leave Big G here if we can't move him?" Kazu suggests, as he looks around, the object in his hand letting out a low signal; beating in a rhythmic beat, very, very slowly, and very far away. Kenta hears the noise as well, looking out towards the forest surrounding them alongside a tall cliff near a large body of water; the distance too great and too shrouded in fog to see land anywhere across the water. Kazu looks around for anything that could be causing the signal as well, all the while he looks over at Kenta with a bit of a goofy grin, having something come to his mind right now.

"Kazu, is there any chance we can simply have Andromon lift Big G into the van for us?" Kenta asks, as he warily looks out towards the cold distance of the fog shrouded water; it's very faint, but he can distinctly hear what sounds like an alarm clock ringing, but it's so distant and far away that it doesn't alert Kazu at all, and most certainly isn't coming from within the resident part of the camper van either.

Within several seconds, the ringing sound fades away; Kenta continues to stare out into the distant, fog filled horizon due west, all the while Kazu begins pressing a few buttons on the device in his hand; at first it merely resembled an ordinary flip phone, but then a code entered by Kazu causes the phone to shift parts around its individual panels and screens, before reassembling itself into a digivice.

"Andromon, realize!" Kazu speaks up, as from the digivice's screen manifests a tall, humanoid cyborg Digimon with an asymmetrical assembly to its robotics and remaining organic parts. A Frankenstein's monster-esque mishmash of a cyborg and solemn facial expression, the mighty construct Andromon moves to bow down towards Kazu, as Kenta watches and lets out a quiet groan.

"Greetings, Hirokazu-sama. What is my task?" Andromon asks, all the while Kazu nervously chuckles.

"Um, Andromon? I hate to be rude and all, but you honestly don't have to keep referring to me by my full name or with an honorific all of the time, you know; please, just call me Kazu." Kazu tells his partner Digimon, all the while Andromon doesn't move from his stance.

"I, Andromon, have always been in your debt; my life is yours to command ever since that fateful day, do you not remember, Hirokazu-san?"

* * *

_It wasn't even a full half of a year's worth of time; a gigantic, red -seemingly alive- mass of digital origins materializing into a towered structure; engulfing all of the various roots of the fabled Tokyo Tower, the iconic structure is deemed the perfect solid material for the red mass to use as a makeshift spine. Accompanied by its movements are odd pulsations, as well as the sound of a ringing bell of sorts._

_Residents all around the vicinity are fleeing in terror; a voice rings in each of their heads, as if asking a question; as the pulsations affect those around the swirling red mass engulfing the tower, this questioning voice is repeatedly asking different things of different meanings._

**What is fate?**

**What lies in the future?**

**What is humanity?**

**What are Digimon?**

**Where is the Hydra?**

**Why are we here?**

**What are we?**

**Where is the creator?**

**Who is Lee?**

_On a glance, it appears as if a clueless mind is doing nothing but rambling; the reactions of the fleeing civilians appear to speak otherwise. A man begins screaming in an utterly unhinged, horrendous noise of raw wrath; grabbing a nearby bench, he flips it over and throws it into the nearest civilian; a nearby civilian begins bashing her head against a building's windows, covering her ears alone as she does; one man is just staring, doing nothing else aside from standing, as he gazes upon the swarming red mass in the nearby distance._

_Civilians left and right begin grabbing the nearest object they can; be it from the streets, within alleyways, or flat out invading stores and grabbing any appliance they can, before going after each other next; two men collide as they both grab a television to try and use as a weapon; one of them is skewered with a metal rod wielded by a much bigger man, appearing delirious and spitting out a tooth and some blood, all the while gunshots can be heard piercing into him from behind, as a single shot into the back of his skull causes him to collapse onto the surviving smaller man and crush him under the television, the metal rod and skewered man, as well as the larger man himself._

_The three are due to the dead as they're caught in direct contact of the red mass coming further towards the crowd. Pseudopods emerge from the red mass and begin grasping for people further away; piles of people, some too slow, some trampled by others, or some wounded from combat with the other civilians gone mad, all caught in the moving, living mass and absorbed; raw flesh liquefied in seconds, with organs following suit next after several seconds longer of being exposed, and the bones are the last to be absorbed as they are disintegrated and consumed into the red mass._

_Within the crowd, a large, humanoid Digimon covered in purplish armor, a black shield, a dual sided spear, and a skull-like face confronts the red mass drawing closer to the crowd._

" _Real beings: stand aside, get out of here: listen not to the madness from which the red demon speaks. I shall deal with this myself. I, Craniummon, will save us!"_

_[Are you insane, Craniummon?! I told you and the others to fall back and focus on containing the beast from the Digital World!]_

_[Lady Raiga, enough! I detect the entity's core unit inside the red mass infecting the city; I shall terminate it myself at all costs.] Craniummon tells off his superior, as he soon yells "God Bless!"_

_An energy shield surrounds Craniummon in an instant; within less than three seconds, the red mass engulfs him into it, but Craniummon stands completely unharmed, now walking forward as the barrier fades as he steps further into the red mass' insides and towards the perceived core unit of its being._

_It feels like an eternity of walking through this fleshy blob, air tasting like flesh and the smells of death and decay filling Craniummon's helmet, as a faint, cobalt glow pierces through the top of the mass. Craniummon continues to walk through the mass towards the consumed Tokyo Tower, in which the core unit resides at the very top of it; indeed, the Tokyo Tower is now serving as a spine-like structure to support the aberration's mass and individual components, something Craniummon is quick to realize._

_Though now that's merely the least of his own worries; the cobalt, blinding light in the sky leads into a scaled lower body of some kind of unseen lifeform crashing through the mass' body with the sounds of flesh being flayed alive can be heard as the even bigger lifeform's reptilian structure moves to rest itself on top of the mass, completely unharmed by the red mass' form; Craniummon's eyes widen in horror, as six eyes, separated into two pairs on individual stalks glaring down at him, looms the three headed form of a gigantic Digimon of some kind._

" _C-Cobaldramon… So, Lady Raiga has failed to contain you?" Craniummon speaks, as he looks up at the hydra known as Cobaldramon; the Legendary Light Dragon type Digimon lets out a loud, bellowing roar as its tone rings across the skyline as the sound of a massive gong transformed into the roar of a draconic being._

"…  _So be it. With one strike, I will erase the both of you even if it takes my life."_

_What do you have to gain?_

_What do you have to lose?_

"…"

" _Nothing."_

_Craniummon moves to spin the dual sided spear in its right hand; the Claíomh Solais, into generating a gigantic vortex within mere seconds as the Holy Knight type Digimon's immense strength and speed from spinning the Claíomh Solais into generating a field of energy that erases anything it comes into contact with. At first, it seems like it's not doing anything; on an increasingly tiny scale, however, matter itself is being outright shoved aside to clear the way altogether; matter should normally not be pushed aside in a manner from which the Claíomh Solais is currently doing through Craniummon spinning it._

_By all accounts, all of this effort to stop these two entities, in the mere form of a Royal Knight Digimon, should technically not be possible: the universe apparently forgot to tell Craniummon that this is the case, and thus Craniummon does it anyways._

_A massive beam of energy erupts from within the vortex created by the Claíomh Solais, with the Avalon being held close to Craniummon's side as the red mass entity suddenly begins to let out an immense hoard of screaming in various different voices all at once; stepping up the alleged "stairs" that leads to the core unit; defying all fragments of reality, Craniummon is not fettered by the red mass' shrieks of helplessness; be it death by the Holy Knight type Digimon, or death by the Legendary Light Dragon type Digimon, it doesn't make a difference; Craniummon knows he'll be the only one conscious in the end._

_Cobaldramon's heads and body have not budged an inch during the increasing vortex storm: Cobaldramon's faces are in a perpetual, violent snarl towards Craniummon and the red mass both: the energy beam created by the vortex suddenly widens in width; increasing several hundred times fold until eventually engulfing the entire surface of the skyline into a bright blue flash: Cobaldramon still doesn't budge, but out of frustration, oddly decides to ingest the core unit of the red mass with its middle head out of a desire to gain its power before its demise._

_Craniummon knew this too well; jumping up at Mach 3 speed, Craniummon strikes with an indomitable uppercut with the Claíomh Solais to create an immense, vertical gash in Cobaldramon's scales, actually managing to disorientate the hydra; the beam of energy scatters into several million spheres of light surrounding Cobaldramon, as Cobaldramon's left and right heads react in horror all the while the middle head can't even react the same._

_For it sees a different horror in the form of Craniummon falling down through the air, with the Claíomh Solais aimed above his head to crash down upon Cobaldramon; within several seconds, faster than the blink of an eye, each individual sphere moves to crash into Cobaldramon and detonate; Cobaldramon thrashes about violently, as the numerous burns from the burning hot light end up scarring its body and scales immensely, eroding away at its own outer shell and exposing a wireframe mesh of itself._

_Over the next minute, Cobaldramon's movement slows down immensely, before ceasing altogether as Cobaldramon's eyes disappear into their sunken eyeholes, as the three heads droop down and the tail curls up into a resting state._

_Craniummon did it; he is a hero; he has conquered the Legendary Light Dragon and the red mass. Little did he know, though, of what would happen with his fate next._

_Weeks would pass, as a sickbay has Craniummon in stasis; Raiga, nor any of the other Royal Knights, ever show up in any way or form; Craniummon's mind awakens to realize how much time has passed since he had defied the odds entirely; he sees nobody._

_He's inside the ground of an unknown soil, and as he can feel he's being dug up, he cannot grasp the form who is helping him out of the ground, but the face he sees he knew would haunt him now._

" _Hello, my name is Shiota Hirokazu." The human introduces himself as, as Craniummon moves to grasp his head with his hand, noticing something to quickly be wrong. His height is now diminished, and he's shorter than the man before him now._

_Looking around, eventually finding a shard of glass to see himself in, Craniummon sees he is no more; just a Hagurumon now; nothing more, nothing less._

_A Hagurumon who would question why his companions had left him for dead, and a question that still haunts him to this day. Until any foreseeable outcome in which he could find the answer, he made it clear to this human, Hirokazu, that now has a duty to fulfill._

" _Hirokazu-san… I owe you my life."_

* * *

"Since that day it has become clear where my fate lies; you know too well I cannot leave without knowing why my companions had left me here, and for what purpose. Until then, my purpose is to serve you, Hirokazu-san." Andromon clarifies to Kazu, Kenta, and a partially awake Grandis.

"Sheeesh… And here I figured I was at the mercy of mortal coils. I don't even want to know how you survived all of that, Craniamon." Grandis speaks to Andromon, as Andromon blinks in confusion, as Kenta covers his face with his hand.

"Best not to question it, Andromon…" Kenta tells Andromon. Within the next moment, Grandis suddenly has his eyes turn feral; the intense ringing returns as loud as possible, as Grandis looks around intensely at what could be causing the noise; Kenta is on alert, hiding behind Grandis, as Kazu looks around with his digivice to check on any possible signals nearby.

"Several signals detected, Big G; most of which Champion Level, thousands of them right above our very…"

Kenta's screaming interrupts Kazu as he looks up into the sky; a vortex of some kind is in the air as various Digimon are being drawn into it, and once reaching the center, are atomized on the very spot. Grandis knows all too well what is being unleashed.

"So Henry's dad actually convinced his company to carry out the true form of Juggernaut… shame, really, I thought he was smarter than this." Grandis states rather bluntly, as Kazu gives him a weird look.

"Like he wouldn't have used it at some point or another?"

"Kazu do me a favor; keep an eye on a very big fucking Ultra Level signature on that digivice radar of yours." Grandis tells him as his eyes maintain their hostile look, the Digimon above them begin swarming in an erratic fashion; the vortex in the sky is beginning to crack as if it were literally made of glass; soon the signatures appearing on Kazu's Digivice have the Champions fade out entirely and be replaced with Ultimates.

Ultimates appearing in droves of millions, with tens of thousands of Mega Level Digimon being spotted gathering in a circular fashion around the vortex; Kenta's eyes widen as from within the black void, the silhouette of a fiery entity emerges through; temperatures immediately skyrocket, the trees surrounding the group ignite into flames; fog disappears and water begins rapidly turning into boiling hot steam.

"Um… Grandis… we have a problem…" Kazu tries to show Grandis, as Grandis keeps an eye on the sky above; the fiery silhouette forming into an Asian dragon-esque appearance with large avian wings; three glowing eyes and devilish horns of a crown.

"So there's  _another_  Legendary Light Dragon?!" Andromon asks in horror, recognizing the gigantic blip on Kazu's radar as for what it is; an Ultra Level Digimon flat out; a Super Ultimate.

Brondramon shatters the sky as the entire fragments of it burst up into molten hot flame and liquid upon entry into the real world; swiftly crashing into the nearby ocean; an immense shockwave sends Kenta and Kazu flying in the air, all the while Andromon jumps to catch the duo, all the while Grandis tries to hold on to the ground, but even with as much of a resistance he put up to Kazu, even he's forcefully uprooted as the surrounding environment caves outwards from the immense, asteroid level impact of the Legendary Light Dragon Brondramon's entry into the real world.

Brondramon emerges from the boiling water as its avian wings ignite into a molten, fiery obsidian as feathers; Brondramon takes flight almost as quickly as it immediately recovers from the impact; and immediately begins heading south; beneath its wings, everything in the vicinity burns to ashes as an immense trail of fire follows Brondramon's flight path.

It would take nothing short of a literal miracle if any of us are to survive this.


	17. Chapter 16: Nova

A familiar face at a familiar part of town, Strabimon doesn't exactly hide himself while standing atop a rooftop nearby Takato's household and pastry shop. Strabimon observes the horizon as he keeps an eye on Takato's truck to eventually approach, but the scorching heat of the day has Strabimon itching in a few places behind his wolfish ears, needing to scratch the spots in question whenever necessary.

Upon examining the traces of fur in his hand from scratching his head, he can see entire chunks of his silver fur shedding altogether, with Strabimon feeling the spot behind his ears and feeling a thicker patch of a bleached, near blond levels of white fur in its place.

"Greeeat… Winter coat is beginning to grow in, and today just happens to be the hottest day of the year." Strabimon mutters, as his brows furrow in his gaze as he looks upon the horizon; he wish he could just easily go into any of these houses in this neighborhood. Considering he's a feral Digimon with no tamer, and the fact, if people like Jiang-yu are anything to go by, there do exist humans who don't take too kindly to Digimon merely existing.

That being said, the heat is still a persistent issue for everyone involved, unless you happened to be of a kind with a very strong association with fire like Meramon.

In terms of household stability and conditioning to withstand extreme temperatures and weather, Takato has the luck of the draw of being significantly wealthier than any of his friends or associates; the neighborhood he lives in has housing much like his own. A bottom floor with a shop or service of some kind, and an upstairs floor for housing, with every homeowner in the neighborhood being a part of a business that allows them to afford the housing they have to even set up shop with. Everyone who lives in this northern part of town is wealthy enough to afford a good quality air conditioning unit, and the housing is strong enough to even be waterproof in case of flooding like what had happened earlier this day.

Takato's truck, meanwhile, is only a few miles away from home now; Takato and Jeri are both in the front seats, with Takato focusing on driving as he doesn't have the radio on, sweat visibly forming from his head and forearms.

Jeri is leaning against the truck's passenger window as her eyes are narrowed a little bit, as she tries to rest and not let the heat overwhelm her. Considering how inconsistent her chance to get some sleep has been over the past few days, to the point she thinks that she might've been awake for nearly 48 hours or more prior to last night, so her drowsiness still persists due to not having recovered from the fatigue of having been awake for so long.

Takato glances over at Jeri as he drives, noticing her state of rest all the while he looks at his nearby surroundings for a moment, before spotting a relatively small rest stop area as he moves to slowly steer the truck to drive into the parking lot of it, eventually stopping the truck and putting it in park.

The engine can still be heard loud and clear, having not been turned off, as Takato moves to look at Jeri's half asleep state; looking at her round face, her petite frame, and her clean, soft locks of brown hair, Takato can't help but smile a little bit warmly at Jeri. Taking in the fact she looks rather cute, Takato notices Jeri move in place a bit with her legs as Takato hurriedly looks away with a prominent blush on his face in his door's mirror.

"Takato?" Jeri asks in a gentle, although troubled tone; Takato looks at her as he tries to hide his blush.

"Yes, Jeri?" Takato asks, as Jeri looks away nervously as she stumbles a bit with trying to speak; her mouth opens briefly and lets out a small noise of sorts, as Jeri hums, or, at least sounds like she is, as she tries to word things to Takato.

"I-I kind of… n-need… to… u-um…"

Takato can tell from Jeri's embarrassment and her body language that she's trying to ask if they happened to stop anywhere with a restroom for her to go to. Takato can understand she's nervous about asking it, considering Impmon is still in the back having not said a word, with Guilmon within Takato's digivice taking a nap, meaning Takato and Jeri are effectively alone.

"So… You're asking if there's a bathroom nearby to use?" Takato asks, as Jeri looks over at him for a few moments, jolts a bit upwards for a brief second as she looks away, shivering all of a sudden as she does. "Jeri? You don't have to be nervous for asking; I already parked right outside a rest stop, so you can go in there if you need to." Takato tells her, as Jeri looks over at him from the corner of her eye and slowly nods, before moving to unbuckle her seatbelt and get out of the truck to head inside.

Takato unbuckles from his seat as well as he stops the engine of the truck and takes the keys out, placing them in his pocket, as Takato gets out and walks over to see Jeri. Jeri quickly moves in a slow, running pace to hurry into the restroom, as Takato tries to turn to look at her as something hits his senses like a freight train.

' _Blood? Here?!'_  Takato thinks to himself, as he looks around and notices everything appears completely normal; traffic is ongoing at a balanced rate, the rest stop has a few other people parked here but mostly trying to keep cool in the heat, and nobody looks as if they were wounded in a sense.

It doesn't take Takato long to remember what had startled him when he had arrived at Jeri's place; he noticed this earlier, but now it fully registers in his mind, especially with how in a hurry Jeri is to want to use the restroom.

Takato moves to stand by his truck as he leans against the back, trying his best to process the fact Jeri is on her period in his mind. Did Jeri only recently start her period, or has she been trying to hide it and nobody has wanted to address it outright?

More importantly what does Jeri plan on doing with Takato once they arrive at his place?

Thankfully a call from his digivice interrupts his thoughts, as Takato moves to grab it from his side and answer it.

"Hello?"

"Yes, Takato, we've kind of got a situation." Ryo's voice can be heard loud and clear, as Takato blinks.

"What happened? I mean unless this is important I've already got an issue myself." Takato answers, as Ryo sighs on his end.

"Look, I don't know how to put this without sounding weird, but… Ruki got a package in the mail containing a gun and ammunition and quite frankly I'm stunned silent as to who it's allegedly from. Big G is on his way back after having stumbled upon Kazu and Kenta also on their way back, and Henry is at the school as normal. I kind of want to gather everyone up for a group meeting to discuss how we should proceed with things." Ryo tells Takato, as Takato nods.

"Alright; Jeri and I will be a bit late depending on the traffic; we're kind of on the other side of the city right now." Takato tells Ryo, as Ryo nods.

"Alright, I'll keep an eye out for you two; security is going to be on alert as well, so you'll need to act fast before things get absolutely insane soon." Ryo orders Takato, as Takato raises an eye.

' _As if Jeri being on her period clearly relishing in my presence isn't insane enough…'_  Takato thinks to himself, as he answers Ryo, "What exactly is going on if I may ask?"

"You've probably noticed because of the heatwave right now, but you haven't seen the worst of it further north heading our direction. That's not even the worse news yet alone any kind of good news." Ryo says, as Takato blinks.

"...  _Okay_ … what's the  _worse_  news?"

"Brondramon has escaped from the Digital World."

* * *

Flying above the northern direction of the sky, as its wings very slowly move to keep itself in flight, a powerful, infernal form as the air surrounding this serpentine, Quetzal-esque dragon begins to rapidly increase in temperature to the point of forming a blinding, heated mist.

Upon letting out a roar akin to a massive flamethrower and chainsaw being revved up in unison, a shockwave can be felt in the distance as the Legendary Light Dragon Brondramon arrives in Seattle, further into the city than anyone from the VIP club ever normally goes.

Trails of fire and shed feathers falling to the ground like scorching hot iron slag, the water of even the oceanic lakes evaporating and turning into a fiery mist of toxic, superheated air, as the feathers from Brondramon's wings crash into the water and their liquefying metallic forms corrupt the formerly clean waters of the whole city.

[Target incoming! Targeting systems obscured, but functional!] RustTyrannomon says, as he positions himself to the ground of the tall building he and Machinedramon are stationed near Takato's neighborhood; both machine based Digimon aiming their respective cannon weaponry to open fire upon Brondramon.

Elsewhere in the city, Raijinmon and Fujinmon both activate their mechanized arms and prepare to lead an assault from the west side of the city towards Brondramon; elsewhere in the city, various members of the VIP Club, still digivolved into Mega Level forms for reasons unknown, join in on the prepared assault, circling the Space Needle as Brondramon's targeted destination.

BlackWarGreymon, Belphemon Rage Mode, VictoryGreymon station themselves at the southern end of the Space Needle; Devitamamon, Gankoomon, and even the likes of Flare and Tempest, are gathered towards the northern part of the city; Tempest rushes into the air, taking off with grace as he flies alongside the infernal form of the Legendary Light Dragon; its bronze scales switching between a main sequence star's close up infernal red and orange glows of light and plasma, as Brondramon's body blinds the view of the entire skyline with a shrouded, dark red atmosphere forming in the lower elevations, and a towering red inferno in the sky with the sun completely shining on the city with a fiery glow.

"Tempest! Get out of range of Brondramon! What do you think you can possibly do?!" Gankoomon orders Tempest to get out of Brondramon's way, as Tempest responds by igniting his wing's thrusters and flying past Brondramon in a sheer burst of speed; Tempest, now glaring the three eyed Dramon-Type Digimon in plain view, glows a frosty blue as his weapon pours suddenly open up.

"Grand Cross Freezer!" Tempest roars in fury, as his eyes suddenly ignite into a bright red as the cold, blue aura engulfs him as the image of a larger, partially cybernetic dragon Digimon holding a giant sphere takes physical form, before individual plates on its scaled hide open up, as the icy sphere opens up and reveals an frozen crucifix from within; in an immense barrage of ice and cold all at once, Brondramon's infernal body isn't fazed for even the slightest moment by Tempest's attempt to slow it down.

"Twilight Blaze!" Brondramon roars as it opens its mouth and seemingly an entire star forms within Brondramon's maul as the entire ground shakes with an immense force upon a massive amount of energy being poured into it from the surrounding areas; entire structures begin to atomize as their remnants combine into Brondramon's sphere of fire.

Flare, her eyes hostile and her teeth clenched in fury, looks over towards Gankoomon and Devitamamon, before giving an order over the entire communication channels between the different Mega Level Digimon.

[All units! Open fire upon Brondramon! Show not even a shred of mercy to this invader!] Flare calls out, as she gathers an immense force of geomagnetic energy within her hands as she lobs it at Brondramon's body; Gankoomon summons forth a monstrous entity from his backside as it lunges at Brondramon to directly land a punch in its middle eye.

RustTyrannomon and Machinedramon open fire with their respective cannon weaponry; firing an immense beam of energy directly into Brondramon's torso, as Raijinmon and Fujinmon fire their respective arm based energy weapons directly into the other side of Brondramon's core body.

Belphemon Rage Mode moves to expand in size from sheer frustration alone, until his size equals Brondramon's own, as Brondramon's eyes widen as to realizing the attacks from the others, let alone the sudden, near instantaneous force of a gigantic, clawed knuckle fist crashing into Brondramon's head, as Brondramon still carries the glowing energy in its mouth.

"BlackWarGreymon! VictoryGreymon! Prepare for execution!" Belphemon Rage Mode orders of the two, as Belphemon's hands forcefully grab onto the skull and jaw of Brondramon's head, forcing the Legendary Light Dragon's jaws shut around the solar sphere in its mouth; easier said than done, as Brondramon's struggling proves to be immensely strong even considering Belphemon Rage Mode's sheer mass of musculature fighting to force its jaws shut.

BlackWarGreymon and VictoryGreymon fly in from the side, as BlackWarGreymon begins to spin into the formation of a drill as he launches himself at Brondramon's third eye, as VictoryGreymon pours all of his energy into the Dramon Breaker to have it enlarge big enough to be able to sever Brondramon's limbs if necessary, as all of the other members of the VIP Club fire upon Brondramon with their own attacks still to this very point; their intensity increasing all the more as Brondramon's heat begins to actively effect their own digicore's stability.

"Primitives! You are all nothing more than primitives!" Brondramon shouts, as it suddenly flaps its wings at an immense force and speed to knock BlackWarGreymon and VictoryGreymon off course; the duo degenerating into BlackAgumon and Agumon respectively and falling to the ground from a great height, as Belphemon's attempts to keep Brondramon's jaws shut soon have its own data being absorbed by Brondramon as Belphemon degenerates to Psychemon and falls to the ground below as well.

With Brondramon no longer being held at the trio's mercy, Brondramon lands and grasps a firm hold of the Space Needle with its talons, before anchoring itself to stand atop the tall tower of Seattle as its giant, infernal wings spreads out wide and able to be seen by all, before Brondramon opens its mouth as the charging solar sphere suddenly intensifies in sheer size; dwarfing Brondramon's whole body at first, before suddenly charging up to an enormous, asteroid sized dwarf star, before Brondramon prepares to launch the infernal sphere.

With Seattle burning to the ground in cinders as the roads become molten rivers of pavement, glass shattering and flying all over the streets and nearby areas, as Brondramon's immense gravitational field being generated causes an immense shockwave which reverts any and all nearby Digimon down to their weakest maintainable forms, as Brondramon tosses the solar sphere into the ground and an immense explosion ensues with the nova being able to be seen from Earth's orbit as clear as day, as all of Seattle and next to the entirety of the northwestern United States is experiencing a wrecking shockwave that burns or destabilizes anything in its path upon impact.

* * *

Nobody was ready for what field of view they see next.

Millenniumon is panting heavily in exhaustion; Ryo, Ruki, Henry, everyone else involved in the colossal nightmare of Brondramon's wrath is seen being revealed in the aftermath of the nova's explosive force.

Ryo is horrified as to what he sees in the aftermath of Brondramon's rampage; Millenniumon is equally startled by it as well, as Ryo finally speaks, "Millenniumon, where did you bring all of us?"

"I have sent every VIP Club member and all of our associates three days into the future, trying to save as many who have survived as possible at the cost of my own ability to fend off Brondramon directly; everyone will be waking up in medical facilities all across the city; the damage is irreversible at this rate, unfortunately, but the survivors are many thanks to my own abilities…" Millenniumon explains to the best of his ability to do so, as Millenniumon looks around with a tearful gaze as to the razed city before him, even some parts of it still up in flames even after the jump in time.

Ryo looks on in utter horror as to the infernal chaos of the city befallen his eyes, as he looks around to see if there's any part of the city that isn't destroyed at all, hoping that some kind of salvation can be done to allow everyone room to breathe after the incident.

"So almost everyone is safe, but the city is now lost to us all after you've drained who knows how much power as to remotely save anyone from this so suddenly… I have to ask, though… did  _anyone_  not make it that we know?" Ryo asks Millenniumon, as Millenniumon is hesitant to speak up; the sounds of footsteps being heard immediately catches Ryo's attention, as he turns towards the source of the sound to see who is approaching.

I͠m̷me̡ns̷el̷y char̶r̴ed̡ all ͢a̸cr͢o҉s҉s̡ h͝is͜ bod͠y͟,́ ͞wa͢ĺki͏n͢g ̵t͘o̡war̛d͘s Ry̴o͝ and ̢his Ḑįgi̡mon as̵ n͏o̧t̀h̴ing s͡ho͘r̢t ̴o̕f҉ ͟a͢n͝ ex͞h͏àu̶st̴ed̴,͏ ̶c̕o̵mpl͘e̵te̵l̷y̸ draine̶d w̧al͡ķ ̧o͡f ͟fu͜t̷ility,̧ ̸s̕t̶aǹd̕ś t͝h͞e ̷o̶n͘c̴e̕ m͘ight̢y for͜m̧ of̡ Gran͞di̡s him͞se̢lf͞;͞ e͟ỳe̛s̶ c̕ompl̀ete̛ly͢ dea͜d in ҉em͜otio͜ns͞ ͘b̶eìng͟ gi͡ven͘, ͘a̵s̨ G̛r̕andis̴ mo̢ves t͜o̸ try an̶d͏ şt̷a̕n͡d̷ b͏e͝f͢or̢e ́R̢yo ánd ͏M͏i͏llen͜ǹi҉u҉mon; thé bl̛a͡n̡ki̴n͢g̶ ͜òf h̶is ͝e̡ye̵s͝ onl͠y ̴s͟e̡al̨s ͞th͘e de͢al ͝as̸ ̨t́ơ ͢wha̕t ͜h͏as͜ h̸a̕pp͟e̷ne͘d̶.͘

S̝̥͎̼̠͓t̻͓o̱̩pp̻̱̜ḭ͎̤͇n̲̟͚͇̠̠͚g̯̱͈̳͎̭͚ i͈̬n̝ ̣͍̟̩̹̺̣p͉̻̘l͈̘̟̖̘͉ạ͇̟̤͉̳ͅc̗e͈ ͉͔͇̝̫̬ͅa̱͍̠̦̥̟n͔d͚͚̣̫̘̫ c͍͕̳̬o̳̥̩̲̗̻͈l͈̬̟̦͓l͕̦a̱p̦si͙̘̱͈ng̙̻ ̲̜̠̯ͅt̟o̟̥̰͓̼̦ ̖͇̖t͓̠ͅḥ̯̦̳͇͕e͉̥̘̣͍̲̳ ͎g̟r̭̝ou̖͉̟̗͖ͅn̠̮̙̭̼͕̹d̰̬͓ ̹͔̼̙̠͕o̳͕̫n̯̜̪ͅͅ h͇̬̘̭i͉̮̜̱͔̻ṣ̥̳̰ ̙̮̼͍b͖a̯c̻̟̦̰̰̮k͔̮s̜̫i̲͍͉̬d͚̖̲e̩̤,̭̖ ̜͕̯G̰̼͙̮̟r͔̪̘̫̰̼a͓͓̪̗̫̘ͅn̹d͎̝i͓̮s̝͉ ͔̠̮͎͖̟l͈͇et̘̗̼͕̠̲̠s̗͖̯͙͎̭̠ ̩͕̜̗̩o͎̦̗̘̫̞u̖̱̣̞̙͙̯t̪̜̼͈̩̙ ̮͖̙̪an̘̥ ̘e̝͓̣̠̥x̖͓̻ha̩̪͉̩̹u̙st̩̞̳̯͖̣̩e̙͎͕̮d͎̤̻͔͎̯͙,̰̲̻̺̜̦ ̫sa̱̺̘͚u̟̰͈͔̲̥̻r̯̟̻͎̺͍i͍̗̟̖͚̥̺a̘n̗̰͕̺ ̘͚̺g̞͓͍r͈̝̮̥o̯̝a̮̝n ͉̹̗̘̩̹o̻̭f̺ ͇̩͔ago̟̰͇̹͇̼ny̙̭͔ ͇̟a̬͇̞̖̟s͎̤͈̩̭̞ hi̝̬̱̩̙̫̩s ̪̟̫̯mịn̜͔̩̭͙̮͙d̲̯̼ ̩̗̯̱ͅs̤̤͕̝̪̻l̩̫̠i̭̞̠̠ͅp̤s̺̭̲̘ͅͅ ͕̟f͖̱̭ṟ̯͇̦om̗̲̫ ̹̬̼̮̟͉t̘̼͇h͕̹̥͖̯̫i̪͉s͇ w̲͍̤͓̼͎ͅo͉̙͎͓̯̥rl̞̲̖̩͖̺d̺͕̖͔͓͔ ̯̺͕̱as̭̦̟͖̥ͅ ̳͓̙ͅwe̫̫͉͔ ̞̫͚̯̺k̥̞͎̪̬͈ͅnow͓͔̝̳̤ ̰̝̗͔̣̼̩i͓̗̰̯̗͕t͖͖̼̝̰͇̜;͍̼͕̞ ̺̜̲̻e̘y̝̹͈̝̲̬es͔̘͙̫ ̱̞̳̳̜̟̱r̯̯̮o̘̦l̤̳l̥͕͈̱̥e̻̩͍̩̠̣d͔͚͖̺̫̫ ̮͍̻̲ͅi̪n̠͖̗t̞̩͎͕̹o ̟̝the ̬̳̺ba͚̳͕c̝̙̼̤̼͓k̬̫͉ ͓̜̟̯̟of̖̩ ̘̹̲̖h̰͇̮ḭ̘̝s̖̬̙ ͇̪h͎̹̪͇̪̖e̱̬̣͖̮̩ͅa͉̪̗d̺ͅ,̹̼ ͍͖͙͖̤a͖s̬̝͍ ͚͎͈̱̙̙ͅG̺̲̙̮ͅr̰̭a̪͓̞͚n͖͈̯̹̙͔d̝i͇͍s͔̪̖͈͉͔ͅ ͈̦̙̻̪̹ͅḥ͍̯̯̩͉it̖͍̤t͍̮̖̟i̗̲̦ng̰ ͔̣t̪͍̝̫̲h̘͔͈e͙̤ ͎̣̖͚g̻̮̪̘͕r͎̠̮̜oṷ̰̺̭̲̼̗n̝d̗̤̞̤̻̞ ̹̜c̖̬̠͖o̯m̤p͕̳̞̣̬̱̬l̳̹̬e̫͎̖͎t̗͍͖̜ͅͅe̳͈̱̬̣̮̮ly̩̣̙̙̝̱ ͓̦͔̺̠͕l͉̲i̻͎̗͙m̗̠̜̖p̩̙͔̯͓̗ ͓̭̬͓̞an̲d̖͓̖̼͔̲ l̦̻͙͓͎i͉̺̖̘̼f͎̗̣̲̥e̝̭͓̣̩l̺̪͚̬͉e͖̭̳̯̳̪͖s̤s ̝̦̟͉b͖͇u͔͓̖̮̤͚̯t̤͇̲̖̙̤̰ ̳͙̪̫̩̜w̜̙͔i͓̫̖̲̱͓ͅt͓͖͓ḫ̘̱̥͚̝ͅ ̲̱͉an ̲͖im̙̺̺͇̩͉̞m̗̦͖̙ḙ͎̖n̤͎s̖͍͈͓͇̻e̻ w̭̹ei͔̦̞͎gh̖͔̻t̳̥ ̭̯͈h̘̯i̦̘͈͈t̮t̰̮̞̜̣̰i͈͍̰͓n̜̩̙̳̼̘g̤ ̲̼̪̮͎tḫ̟͇̜̗̼e͍̘̝͇̮̱ ̬̦̣̠̺̠̬g̻̼r̗̫̞̱ou̜͉̩̺nḍ͎ ͇̺̤̻͕c̣̞̪a̠̥u͓s͚̰e̖̩̮̱̖s̗̰ ̩̬̞͉̳͔̙e̗͎̪̩̪̟v̯̬e̬̻͕̖̮̠r͇͓̞͕͕y̙͕̞͇t̙͍͕̺͓̰̙h͎̙ḭng ̖̻͈̥̠t̳͚o̥̳̭ ̣̯̭c͕̥͕̯͙͔ͅl͓͉̘i͇c͇̼͕̲̩k̤̫̙̫ ͙̠͈͓͚̭̬iṇ͖ ͚̥͖̤R̠͍̯yo̮̭̭͈'s̲̭̫̣̺ ̪͉̻̝̱̯͇m̥̝̜i͕͙̘͓̞̹̯n͕̙͕̯̺ͅd̻.

" _ **̹̭͖̦̕M̛̺̪͙̞̳̝̼̺͝A̱̼͙̫̝͖͞R̸̦̮̠͚̙̙͘T̫͓̬̼͕ͅI̠̭͇̳̘Ǹ̜̬̫͖̱̟̖̤!̨̭̲̼͜!̙̻̺͙̹̘̠͢!̛̲̲̱̻̘"͇̻̘̟ ̡͉̱͕͝**_ R̸̙͕̞̟̣y̘̰̰̹̲̥o͉͇̤̺̙̦͕͢ ̻̘̳͚̝̜̘̣s̡̘̩̯͙̰̹̫͖u҉͇͇̺d͍̗̦̭́́̕d̢҉̘͢e̷̛͈n҉͈̱̟l̴̢̛̼̠̱̥̘y̶̼̦͝ͅ ͔̹͓͡y̵̴̖͎̦̙ȩ̕͏͎͈̞̠͍͎l̸͍̞͓̟̙͉̻l̡̠̺̻͡s̷͍͙̯̯̰͎̹̬̀ ̫̥̩͈̣̮͝͝ͅa̴̛̩̰̠̟̕s̵̨̜͇̣̙̘̫͞ ͏̷̡̙͖ͅh͞͏̳͔̯͎e̵̴̞̰̥̳͈ ̡̞̺̫̖r̸҉̺͉̪̟̣͈̣͇̥u̝̜̝̦̫͍͢s̱̜̪̕͝ẖ̰͚͟͝é̩͎̞͠s̵̵͏͚̜͔̫͕͚̫͕ ̯͍̠͖̻̳̀t̼̱̥̜͡͠ó̵̥̩̟̭w҉͚̻̫̥̀a̼̪̙͞r̨̹͓͎̕d̕͞͏̺͚͉̖̮̳s̡͈̠͙̲̮͙̗̥͘ ͈̦̥̪͍͓̣G̰͝r̛͡҉̟͕̫̰͈a҉̠̲͈̀͠ņ̘͙̦͡d̯̳͚͙̯͙͖͘͝í̠̞͕̹̠͜s̛̪̰̮̪͜'̭̤̯̹͙̙̀ͅ ̫͚̠̩l̷̸͔̼i̛͙̬̩̬͕̞͠f͓̭͜e̞̖̣͟͢͝l̦̹̘̝̰̜͇͜͜e̴̡҉̯̟̜̲̟̭̳̣s͖̦͚͢s̤͇͎̳ ̝͓̥̝̩̬̝͙͞c̷̛͎̲̥̠̭͇͍͡ò̭͡r̨̧̹͕̥̠̮͔͘p̷͎̤̠͠͞s̛̻͙̖̭̗͇͔̗̠ḛ̵̬̙͍͙̜̳̮̟̀,͈̻̮̳̹͘ͅ ̸̱̜̲͖͓͠ṯ̶̷͍̩͖̖͔̥e̶̵̬͙̳̮̗̺̤͢ͅa҉̱̖̩̗̬͚r̵͙̪̳̝̗̳͝ş̡͓̪̖͎̰͎̭̪ ̵̝͇͓̺̞̼͖s̫̜̫͎̝͘͟w̴̛̫̯͚̮̪ͅȩ͈̱̤͇̫͙̀ḻ̦̘͍͜l҉͉̪̘̲͚̹͢i̵̳͚̼͟n͎̩͉͢͟ǵ͚̤̼̜͙͓ ̱̜̩͟͡i͏̯̮̤͙͢ͅn̡̧͍̮̪̪̫͈̘͉͇͟ ̘̙̜̫̣̞̰͠h̴͙̦̣̞͇̀͠i̶̲̜͔̩̣̪̜ͅs̲͎͓ ̵̞͕̰̳͚̹́e҉̵̻̝ý̲̤̠͇͓̼é̲̲̱̪̗͉s̫̀͟ ̶̼͖͔̥ì̳̮͚̰͔͓́ͅͅm̛̥̪̝m͔̀e̢̘͔̻̫̰̮̤̭͈n̴̛͇̣̬̜̤̥̪s̖̪e͉̙̘̙͙̱͎l̰̯̘͢͝y̶̩̱̱̫͡.̸̨̛̥̭̘͉ ̵̧̡̜H̵̫͎͜͟e̷̜͉͓̯n̟̗͖͔͙͘͠r̵҉̬̦̱y̡̛̳̘̲̜͎̮͢ ̣͚̼c̮͓̱͖̝a̠͖̰̺n̝ ͖̜̘̱͙̹͞͡b͏̶̱͉͡ḛ̡̫̯̀ ̼̝̺͙̀ͅh͍̤̻̪̤̲͓͕͢ḙ̶͓a̧̹̩r̫͍͢ḑ̹̣̯̜̖̼̤̪͉͢ ̦̘̪͖ͅd͓̬͍i̩̲͈̲̘͘͝g̡͙̦̗̳̞̤g̵̺̱̪̠̯͉͡i͉ǹ̛̹̙͙̭g̴̡̠̻̳̞ ̶̴̣̤̗͢h̺̤̰͓͓͔͎i̵̼̼̜̝̪̖̦s̨̘͚͙̫͕͙̰̪̞͞ ̛̦̪͚͚̭̼̕ẁ͕̦̟̮̝͚̲̞͓̕a̼͙̥̩y͎͔̥͙̱͙̣̪͡ ̷̤̰͔̞͈͍͜ͅo̧͈̺̮̝̪͖͞ų̼̰͎̻͍̤̳̙̣̀ṯ̨̦͉͉̼̕ ͏̮͈͔̹̻̦͉́o̵̴҉̪̟̦̞͈f̡̧̭̘͎͉ ͕̹́̕r̺̯̝̠͚̗̺u̖̘̰b̩͔͘b̻̟͚̘̟͈̦͢͞l͔̮̥̭e̷̸͙̲̻͉͡ ̸͔̜͕̱͚͓͚w̞̩̝̼̦̺̫̫í̫̭̩t̸͏̮̘͍̜ͅh̶̴̬͇̖̖̝̦̕ͅ ̩̦̪t͇̖̥̭̺͍̀ḩ̸̬͢é͈̜̭ ̶̰̬̼͈h̨̟̣̖̦ͅe̴͓̞l͉̀͞ṕ̡̭̭̞̳̥͝ ̹͞o̱͉͟͡f͚̟̗̮̬̤ ̶͉̹̙̜R̴̜̮͓̲̀a̫͉̖͎̳̮̣͉͔͟p̨̤͡i̫͇͟d͍̝̮̺̦̮͢ḿ͍͎̲̳̪̥̖ò̸̱̥̖̕n͇̲̘͍͍͔͍͘ͅ,̡̲͈̕͜ ̸̣͕̭̲̠̕a̵̞̩̯͍̟s҉͕͍̫͈̭͕͘͞ ̣͓͉̙̤̜̻͍͢͝h͈͕̙̭̜͉e̷̯̳̭̗̪̱̫̰͢͞ ̬͎̱̭͉͟h̶̰̹̣̦͟ḭ̱̖͞ḿ̷͈̩̖̺͈̦͖͔͞s̻̱̺͝e̲̝͔̖ĺ̤͍̘̙ͅͅf͈̭̩̻͘ ̩n̨̜͎̺̼͍͉̯͢͟ơ̛̭̲̜̬̰̬̥̕t̻̘͓̘̞̬̣̹͘i҉͏̮̤̟̻̬̦c̷̪̩͡e͍͚̹͍s̸̨͎̖̩ ̴̘G̶̢͏̫͎͕͎͇͕r̵̼̠͖̥̮̬̼̤͜a̵̦͓̥n̴̜̘d̨̘̹̣̟̰̬́͡i̜͜͝͠s̪̳̖͉̺̭̝̱'̴̢̠̻̼̣ ̡̛͕̭̦̭̟̫͚s̕͢͏̩͇̜̙̹̼̘̦ͅt̯̺͔̩̟̣a͏͔̫̭̳̗t̪͔̣͔é̞ ̙͖̻͈͙͙̞͈̝͞a̸̦͍̰͔̲̫s̵̸̢̺͚͔̜͖͔ ̡̘͞ḩ̷̞̘̦̹̙͎̺̬̲i̴̸͙͕s͎̟̹̜̼̖̬̺ ̛̠͚͟͝ḛ̷̡͖̰ͅy͇̲ḛ̯͉ͅs̨̘̤̭̙̠̲̙̣ ̣͕̜͎̖͍͇͝w̷̡̟̮̺̲̟̝͍̼i̵̢̩͞d̷͕̦͓̝͠e̴̵̗̥͞n̢̰̦̥̻̗͇̘,̵̞̫̱̫̥̤̰̭ ̨͇̰͈̝͞b͏̷͔͚̜̠̬e͏̮͓̪̪̰̲̤̺̕f̜̹͓̦̟͘͞͡o̷̯͓͔ṟ̡̥̘̪͇̼̥̟e̳̘̖̝̘̘̺̩̮͜ ҉̷̧͙͉̭̟̬h̵̲͇̺̀e̶̴̮͕̖̫͎̥ ̞̺̮f̳ͅo̜̹͕̪̯̖͟r҉͔̲̻̟̘́c̬͖͈͍̗ͅe͓͇̪͔̰͚͎s̹̭̼̗͜ ̷̴̯̳͚̺͇͍̗̳t̝̞̞̤̖̮̲̲͢ḩ͖̱͓͖̰̬͖̞e̢͙̗m̵̨̖̥̥͔̮ͅ ̮͓̪̲t̙̠̖̠ͅͅo̸͈͟͝ ̟̘͎͙̦͕c̷͙̞l͖̀o̵̢̩͞s̡̻͉̜̬̼̼̞͜e̸̪͓̯̠̪͉ ̵̸̦͉̦̩̥í̵͔͇̲͙̻͍͞n̴̦̱̞̱͕͖̩̙ ͏̢̥h͏̟͘ͅo̧̯͖̦̤l̴͚̞̲̼̖d͏̲̳͉̙͇̹̪͉͡ị̸̸̼̹̺̠n̯͚̖g̶͚̝̳̫͕̘̠̕͜ ͓̳͙͎b͓͙͍̗̜̭̕a̘͉̤̳͇̦͡ͅc̺̤̮̠k̷̨͖ ̢̮̳̯̪̳̳̯o̷̡͉͔̰̖͖̳̝̱ņ͎̕ ̯̭̟w̧̠͍̮̪̰̯͞h̸̜̻̭͖a̡̘̭̤ṯ̖̣ȩ̙̰͇̭v̹̠̰̳̞̻̠e̷̤̜̤̞̙̮͇̜ŕ̷̪̭ ̵̵̠̗̻ḩ̵̛̱̱e̛̙ ̵͈̗̮̺̖̼̲͞w̧̫̲͙̗̝̫̞ọ̶̰̕u̡͙̥͚̮l̶̺̺̣̮̠̞̫͜͠ḑ͙̞̥̕ͅ'̷̯̺̹̳͍v̷̶̸̳è̴͉̭̰̲̟̼̺ ͓̯̼͖̰͖̭̞̭̀d̝̦o̧̠̤̼̭͓̩̯n̫͖̪̙̯e̦̜̼̞͔̮̣͢͠ ͎̲̰̜͈͍̟͡͞h̡̫̻̮͚͖͙́a̤̫̲̠͔͓͜d̶͙͇̥͠ͅ ͓̻͝ḩ҉͖̥͕̫͇͚̯̘̕i̱̳̩̱̙̤̘̗s̞̙ ̤̗̩e̶̢͓̳̰̹ṃ̷̤̠̣͢ó̷̭̩̯̪̟̟̘t͇͚̪͖̳ͅͅì̺̪̯̠̘͈̕ǫ҉̭̗̟͔ͅn̡͞҉̠̼̣s̘̣͡ ̴̡̠͖̩̳̻͍͙o͍̭͕̩̻͓̠͇͜v͖͈̝è̬͈̬͍̼̭r̗͎̹̖̗͙͢͡c̶̜̕a̡͈̥̠̝͖͟m̹̼̰̕e̸̜͝ ̡̗̩̜̯͖͘͟h͏̜̤i͚̹͉̱̬̥̙̼̭͡ḿ̻̺͓̘ ̵̨͔̩̣̟͔͖̦͓a̵̛͇̠͖̖̣̬͙͠t̛͚̹͇̱̝͎̥ ̛̰̺ḁ̛͍̥̳̥̟͔ ͔̳̳̯l̸҉̱͍̻ḭ̷̡̞͈̹͇̫̫̀k̴͖͙̩̳̹͟͟e̛͕͈̬͔̫̰̩̹ ̴̞͖̪̩̝̟͝ͅt̡͔͈h͎̦̠̪̦͟i̵̴͔̲͎̫̰̜͙̩ͅs̸̥̣͚͚̟̜͈̟͚͟.̨̡̥̯̖

 _ **G̤̼͓͖̫̳̦͉͍ͥͧ̈͑ͪ̒̏ͪ̆̒ͮ̃ͭ̀̕r̙̯̙̝̝͕̞̞̗̳̦̦̤̤̫̘̲͇̀͑͗͑ͬ̾̀͂ͬ̈̃̓ͦ̇̊̀͡ͅa̛ͦ͋̎̾ͩ̅̓̐͊̐ͧ͏̰͍̤̪̤̠̠̥͎͙̖̱͈̳̜̖́n̩̮̟̗͈̤͖̞̪̹͖͇̿ͭ͐̎ͫ̑͛̒̉͌̉͞d͛̄͂͒̍̒ͧͮ̍̓ͭͯ̏͑͒ͫ̕͏̢̮̳͔̺͚̭͕̗̝͙̩͚̣̺͉͙͓̲͢ͅiͦ̂̎͌ͣ̅͋̑͒ͥ̐͏̳͙̬̹̫̺͔͕̘͇̕͘͢͠ͅs̶̨͂͐̿ͨ̅̔ͣ͏̛̞̣̖̰̺̯̯̗̭̹̮͇͙̯̻̜̣͓,̢̊ͥ͂́ͮ̓̎̒͑̃͋̀̽͒҉̡̫͍̳̫̣̯͈̱̞̙̫̮͇̙̪̹͉͍͙̀͢ ̧̡̪͓͚̤̼̮͚͇̝͉͔̯̭͂ͣ̄̏̔͐͜t̎ͯͧ͞҉̲͉̣̭̭̲̥̜̝͕͙̺͎̘͠ͅh̸̳̘̭̠͎͉͙̬̬̺̤̮̋̎ͧ̊͐͋̊̓͗̈́ͨ͒̾̉ͦ͡ę̷̨͖̤͙̤͓͎ͩ͌̓ͫ̉̆̔̄͛̄ͦ̀̊̿̋̌̚ ͆ͭ̅̅̽̿͂̏̋ͧ̑ͬ͆̍ͣ̏͊̆̍̕҉̴̧̬̳̻̝͍̯̘͖͢K̴̷̳̻̺͚̫̄̾̈͋͆̾̓͒̆̈́̿į̴̤̙̰͉̟̮͎̯ͣͧ̾̄́̈́̒ͯ̿͑ͨ̂̉̕͟n̾͊̐͊̇͆͗ͮ̽͊͏̸̲̬̺̫̙̞͚̣̞̼̫̤̙̟̹̜̥̀ͅgͩ̐͂̓̔͋ͪ̈̀̐̓ͪ̀͌ͦ̂̑̽͟͟͏̰͙̮̜̖̥̳̙̝̰ͅ ̱̠̪̹̱̘̮͔͚͕̭͉̠̮͖̻ͩͥͬ͌̀̏̾̍͜͠͝o̷͇̜̹̭͍̼̰̤̯̟͙ͫ̋ͯ͟ͅͅf̴̨̧̝̬̘̮͕̯̤̺̱̩͍͖ͤ̓ͤ̌ͭ̎͟͢ͅ ̡͖̟͔̫ͧͪͣ̑ͨͥ̊̐͟͡ț̛͈̰̣͙̱̰̲̆̒͗̋̒ͩͧ̇̿ͫͥ̄̏ͦ͗ͭ͑h̵̵̸̢ͫͨ̋ͤ͑̒͆̏̄͏̮͍͍̲̱̤͓͈͔͚e̶͖͇̖̬̱͉̥̼̥͍̘̘̣̥͇̺͇̣͊̾̄͆ͥ̉ͩ̑ͬ͆̉̆̃͜͢͡͝ ̸̢̪̖͖̱̫͍̩̲̘̼̻͍̙͉̱̳̉̀ͣ͆̑ͭ́̐ͦ̾̓͂ͯ̋̚͡͞͝U̇͗̽ͩͭͥ̍̂̆ͫ̌ͤ̋ͯ̋ͫ̈ͭ̀҉̨͙̱̱͇̺͎̳̼̗̰͇͓̲͍͍ͅl̢̧͍͖̭̦͇͍̺̲͎͕̮̬̼͔͍̟̝̹ͯ̉ͤ̇ͤͭ̎͊͋̀̀͋̊ͥ̚͟͝ţ̶͕̟͓͚̭̗̱̜̪̲͚̫̰̻̜̘̜̬͋͛ͮ͗͂͌́̕î̸̜̮̥̩͖͕͖̹̯̞̣̺͉͚̤̓ͪ͂̑͠m͒ͦ̎̔̈́ͤͤ̽ͬ̋̓̿͊ͯ͝҉̦̞͎̟̦̻̰o̧̡̨̹̟̟̜͕̗͉ͮ́̈́ͯ̋͐̐̿ͭͪͩ̿̂̂̿͂̓͋́͢r̛͚̫̬̘̝̰͈̈̒̓̂͋̒ͫͣ̆̂͊ͮ̓̓ͯ͊̚͠i̴̙͕̺̺̗̮̳̻͕̝̰̅̾ͯͭ̔̇ͣͣ̃ͥ̋ͧͤ̔͑̏̎̏͊̀͞ͅȃͮ͆̿̓̂̍̒̈́͑̽͆ͧ̐ͪ͜҉͍̲̺̲̣͖̠̰͙n̸̨̡̳͈̭͔̣͉̻̤͓̪̗̹̦̿ͬͨͭͮ̈́̀ͨ̂̓̀̆ͪ̐̇̚͢ ̶̡͉͎͕̲̯̯̉̈́̆̒ͧͩ͂̏͘͞D̵̠̪̼̖̯̥̱̝̰̬̣̠͂̃̽͆͒̿̈́͒͐̋͋̽ͤ͡ę̞̗̤̩͇͎̹̤̇͊ͣͫͩ̀̓̑̌̿̐̽͠ͅi̸̢̘̞͈͇̙͈͓͔̦̣͚ͫ̏̉̊ͥͦͬ̂ͫͥ̓̐ͬͪ͘t̿̈͑̉̽̊̓́͐̀ͤ̌͏̺̗̣̰̥͙̜̲͜i̴̧̩̼̘̣͉̟͓̭̰̅́ͦͦͥ̽͛̉̌̓͒ͭ̏ͩ͊͐͢͟ȩ̶̷̜̬͙̤̳̳͕͓̫̭̼̈ͥ̀̆̔̉̽͊̿ͤ̒͑̀̊́͠s̡͙͍̝͙̼͕̉̈́ͯ̍̾̒ͮ̊̓̓͑ͯ̓͌̇̓͂̌͊͝,̢̢̩̪̦͈͖͙ͭ̇͂̃͘ ̿̽ͤ́̎҉̢̛̜̗͖̩̭̟̠̼̟͖͎̠̗̻̀͟ͅǐ̶̧̠̺͚͖͔͚̭͕̲̟͉̗̥͎̩̱͚͉͆̆ͦ͢s̛̹̮̝̼͔̗̦̗͈͍̙̤̦͎͇ͭ͌̒ͦͣ̑̋̆̇̂̆̌̎̔̋ͮ͋̚͜͠͠ͅ ̸̦̯̫̥̦̪̦̬̜ͭͧ̆͋͂ͭ̐ͩ͆̑̐̊ͯͥ͜͜͡ͅd̡͊̈́̓͊̽ͭ̂͌͐̓̃ͫ̋́͠҉҉̘̭͎̪̲̻̭͈͙̟̺̠̙͖̰̺ͅḙ̡͓̜̻͋ͧ͒̂͋̏̃̄̾͑ͅa̵̻̘͎͇̬̲̮͓͎̪̭̟̬̞̪̦͉̥ͯͦ̀ͭͧ̄ͯ̐̄́̒̀̚͜͜͝d̮̮̯̥͉̙̼͎̥͙̫̝͇̠̯̃ͩ̋ͨ͗̂̚͘͘͢.̶̛͈̜͙̼ͣ̏ͭ͊ͬͫ̓̀̈́̇ͪ̌͆̋̄̄͌̓͝**_ ̘̙̣͇͍̮̭

_**N̷̷̨̩̞͍̤̭̘͚̜̤̱͈̱̯ͦ͊ͥ̋̂̅͊ͭ̊̈̃ͧ̚ȏ̷̴̵͖̯̬͚̼̭̲̩̜͕̰̪̳ͩ̃̅̓͌ͤ͆ͬͨͦ̿ͩ̿ͩ̓͂ͯ̀w̶̢͉͕̘͔̰͍ͩ̓̌ͭͅ ̀ͫ͆͒̅̄͐͑̔͒̂ͥͭ̃͊҉̴̧̨̝͔̩̰̮̟̦̥̲i̷̫̹͕͇̟̖͕͔̖̝̝ͬ̿̒̋ͪ͗̿̎̿ͫ͘s̻̗̦̰̖̺̠͕͔͚ͣ̋̓ͤͫ̍ͮ͛̔ͮ͆̇͐̋̒͟͜ ̨̛̛͉̖͙̯̰̻̟̭ͫͫ̍̒͞t̐͋͛̊̂ͩͪͦ̇̅̓̂ͮ̿͐̄ͬ҉͓̞̯̜͕̺̪͓̣͈̙̳̥̤̼h̷̷̛͉͙͚̻̺̖̗̞̹̳͉͍̉̍ͧ̈̂ͦ͒͌̄̓̅̓ͦ̊̃ͣ̉͞ͅͅẽ̥͙̠͙̪͙͖̻̳̳̯͔̻̲͔̈́̑̏̿ͧ̈́ͯ͆ͯ̑̊̒̃̉̀̏͒́͘͞ ̛ͤ̂̄̒ͧ͊͋̏͛͋ͪ̍͂͐͆̄ͯ͏̻̗͎͍͓͍͕̖̞̤̖͙͇̭̲̤̮͇̀ͅḍ̵̛͎͕̝̹͇̯̝̤͍̲̪ͩͨ̄ͤ͛̃́ͅą̨̪̣̦̦̜̳̫̘̦̠̆̉͛ͩ̏̃̀w̢ͩ͂͛͒́̓ͨ̚͡͏̦͉̩͇̻͔͍̦̪̻͚̲̝͉ͅņ̶̙̭̼͈͔̜̲̝͕͚͉͎̩̪̩̼̮̀̓̈ͬ̏̈͋́ ̢̨͔̺͇̙̩̫͇̜̺̗͖̥̙͙̦̱̲̽̋ͩ̾̋͂̚͟͝ǫ̛̛͍͇͓̩̠ͨͪ̊ͬ̄ͭ̓̄̔ͭ͜͠f̛͉̫͈̥̲͙̞̮̘̗̻͖͉̞̊ͪͬͩ̃̀͠ ̃ͧ͛͐ͦ̃̈́̅ͩ̿̈͐ͬ͋҉̵̷̖̞͍̮m̨̡͚͚̗̰͎̬̘͊͗͛̌̅̆̄͂̇ͤͤ̈̇͑̾̇ͮͫ͆͘y̴ͩ̈ͨ̈ͪ̃̈́̍ͣ̚҉͏̖̘̪̘ ̧̓ͪ̃̓̊̐͑͛̐̍͆ͯ͋ͫ̑̈̈́̚͏̯̼̥̣̣̦̼ͅo̴̧̡̤͉̣̰̩̱͙͈ͥͬ̅̏̔͊̕w̡̝͔̱̫̤̫̩̪̮̫̩̬̙͎͇ͨ̒ͮ̃͂̔̾̓̍̎ͭ̕͠ͅnͤͩ̐͑ͯ̿͑ͫͯ̿ͬ̽͑͝҉̫̱͙̰̪̯̙̭͓̝̠̭͞͝ ̢̳̣̜̣̱̗̮͂ͮͣ̒̔ͪͥͣ̄ͥ͗͜ę̵ͩͪͯ̄̂̀͏̗̰̜̩̪͚̱͎̹̣̻͕̻̫̳̖r̨̞̣̦͚̺̖̬̠̘̗̙̥͙͙ͥ̌̂͑ͣ̎̊̑̾̓͛̓͝͝ă̆ͪ͛̏ͮ҉̵̦̫͔̦̻̺͓̹͙̯̥́̕͜.̔̒ͨͧ͋͊̀͛ͨ҉͏̴̮̳͖̤̫̹͙̻̳͈͉**_ ̮̫̳̜̠


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